Journal of Personality Assessment
ISSN: 0022-3891 (Print) 1532-7752 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/hjpa20
Psychometric Characteristics of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support Gregory D. Zimet , Suzanne S. Powell , Gordon K. Farley , Sidney Werkman & Karen A. Berkoff To cite this article: Gregory D. Zimet , Suzanne S. Powell , Gordon K. Farley , Sidney Werkman & Karen A. Berkoff (1990) Psychometric Characteristics of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, Journal of Personality Assessment, 55:3-4, 610-617, DOI: 10.1080/00223891.1990.9674095 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.1990.9674095
Published online: 22 Jun 2011.
Submit your article to this journal
Article views: 387
View related articles
Citing articles: 279 View citing articles
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=hjpa20
JOLJRNAL OF PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT, 1990, 55(3&4),610-617 Copyright 0 1990, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Psychometric Characteristics of the ~ultidimensionalScale of Perceived Social Support Gregory D. Zimet Department of Pediatrics Case Western Reserve university School of Medicine
Suzanne S. Powell Case Western Reserve University
Gordon K. Farley University of Colorado Health Sciences Center
Sidney Werkman Dqartment of Psychiat y Georgetown University School of Medicine
Karen A. Berkoff Case Western Reserve University
The initial study describing the development of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) indicated that it was a psychometricallyi~ound instrument (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet, & FarIey, 1988). The current study attempted to extend the initial findings by demonstrating the internal reliability, factorial validity, and subscale validity of the MSPSS using three different subject groups: (a) 265 pregnant women, (b) 74 adolescents living in Europe with their families, and (c) 55 pediatric residents. The MSPSS was found to have good internal reliability across subject groups. In addition, strong factorial validity was demonstrated, confirming the three-subscale structure of the MSPSS: Family, Friends, and SignificantOther. Finally, strong support was also found for the validity of the Family and Significant Other subscales.
T h e Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) was developed as a brief self-report measure of subjectively assesse$osocialsupport in which
MULTIDlMENSIONAL SCALE
61'1
12-item ratings were made on a 7-point Likert-type scale ranging from very strongly disagree (1) to very strongly agree (7; Zimet et al., 1988). The 12-item MSPSS was designed to measure the perceived adequacy of support from thle following three sources: family (Items 3,4,8, and 1I), friends (Items 6, 7, 9, and 12), and significant other (Items 1, 2, 5, and 10). In the original study (Zimet et al., 1988), the MSPSS and the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL; Derogatis, Lipman, Rickels, Uhlenhuth, & Covi, 1974) were administered to 275 male and female Duke University undergraduates. In this initial study, a principal components factor analysis confirmed thie subscale structure proposed. In addition, coefficient alphas for the subscales and scale as a whole ranged from .85 to .91, indicating good internal reliability. Similarly, test-retest values ranged from .72 to 35, indicating good stability. Adequate construct validity was demonstrated in significant correlations between the MSPSS subscales and the Depression and Anxiety subscales of thie HSCL. In analyzing gender differences, it was found that women reported receiving significantly greater support than men from friends, horn a significant other, and overall. Using an early version of the MSPSS, Blumenthal et al. (1987) looked at thle interaction between social support and Type A versus Type B personality in predicting coronary artery disease. The results of this study indicated that Type A individuals (i.e., those who are very driven and tend to maintain high levels of stress in their lives) with high levels of social support had less coronary artery disease than Type A individuals with low levels of support. No such relationship was found for subjects with Type B personalities (i.e., those who maintain ;a more relaxed lifestyle). These findings help prove the buffering hypothesis of social support as proposed by Cohen and McKay (1984) and others. This hypothesis suggests that social support acts as a buffer against the development of psychological or physical symptoms primarily in individuals who are under stress. Although the findings just reported indicate that the MSPSS is a psychometrically sound instrument, the reliability and validity results reported by Zimet et al. (1988) were obtained using a rather narrowly defined subject sample of male and female undergraduates. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the broader applicability of the MSPSS by evaluating the scale's psychometric: properties with three different subject groups: pregnant women, male and female adolescents, and male and female pediatric residents.
METHOD Subjects As noted, three different sample groups were used. The first group consisted of 265 pregnant women in their third trimester receiving prenatal care at West
612
ZIMET, POWELL, FARLEY, WERKMAN, BERKOFF
Virginia medical facilities. This prepartum sample ranged from 16 to 42 years of age (M = 25.8, SD = 5.3). The second group was comprised of 74 adolescents attending high school in Madrid or Paris (49 females, 25 males). The adolescents ranged from 15 to 19 years of age (M = 16.7, SD = 34). The famiIies of these adolescents were in France and Spain primarily due to requirements of diplomatic, business, or military jobs. The third sample included 55 first- and second-year pediatric residents in training at Cleveland area hospitals (33 women, 22 men). The residents ranged from 24 to 38 years of age (M = 29.2, SD = 3.0).
Instruments and Administration The MSPSS was administered to the prepartum and resident subject groups as part of larger master's thesis studies by the second and fifth authors, respectively. In both of these studies, subjects were asked to complete a number of paperand-pencil inventories, including the MSPSS. Of the 74 adolescent subjects who completed the MSPSS, 72 filled out an additional survey in which they were asked to list persons important to them. Each subject was then asked to rate on a 4-point scale the frequency with which deepest concerns could be shared with this designated person, ranging from always (1) to never (4), and the quality of the subject's feeling about the person, ranging from very positive (1) to very negative (4).
RESULTS Descriptive Statistics The means and standard deviations of the three MSPSS subscales and total scale for the three subject groups are presented in Table 1. The results are quite comparable to Zimet et al.5 (1988) report, with relatively high levels of mean support reported by the subjects in all three groups.
Confirmatory Factor Analysis
A principal components analysis extracted three factors. The varimax rotation factor matrix is presented in Table 2. The items loaded strongly on the subscales for which they were designed, indicating confirmation of the subscaie groupings presented in Zimet et aL's (1988) original study.
MULTIDIMENSIONAL SCALE
613
TABLE 1 Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support: Subscale Means and Standard Deviations Subscales Subject Group
Family
Friends
Significant Other
Total Scale
6.02 1.16
5.64 1.27
6.39 .88
6.01 .90
5.52 1.07
5.48 1.20
5.82 1.08
5.60 .80
5.69 1.07
5.53 .92
5.51 1.73
5.58 .98
Prepartuma
M SD ~dolescents~ M SD Residentsc
M SD
"n = 265. bn = 74.'n = 55.
TABLE 2 Factor Analysis Matrix for MSPSS With Preparturn Sample Factors MSPSS ltem
Friends
Family
Significant Other
Cronbach's coefficient alpha, an internal reliability measure, was obtained for the MSPSS subscales and for the scale as a whole, using all three subject groups. As can be seen in Table 3, the coefficient alpha values ranged from .81 to .90 for the Family subscale, from .90 to .94 for the Friends subscale, from .83 to .98 for the Significant Other subscale, and from .84 to .92 for the scale as a whole..
614
ZIMET, POWELL, FARLEY, WERKMAN, BERKOFF TABLE 3
Cronbach's Coefficient Alpha Values as a Function of Subject Group Subscales Subject Group
Family
Friends
Prepartum Adolescents Residents
.90 .8 1 .83
.94 .92 .90
Significant Other
Total Scale
Overall, therefore, the MSPSS demonstrated very good internal reliability with coefficient alpha levels comparable to those obtained in the original study (Zimet et al., 1988).
Subscale Validity It was possible to assess the validity of the Significant Other and Family subscales using the resident and adolescent samples, respectively. The Significant Other subscale was examined by using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) with the resident sample. The independent variable was marital status (married or single), whereas the dependent variables were the three MSPSS subscales. Our hypothesis was that, compared to the single residents, the married residents would report significantly greater support from a significant other, but would demonstrate no significant difference on the Friends or Family subscale. The overall MANOVA was significant: Hotelling's T' = .36, F(3,44) = 5.32, p < .005. The univariate results, presented in Table 4, provided support for our hypothesis, indicating that married residents reported significantly greater support from a significant other than single residents: F(1,46) = 16.50, p < .001. No significant differences were found for the other two subscales. The validity of the Family subscale was assessed using the adolescent sample. It was hypothesized that subjects' ratings of the frequency with which they can share concerns with their mothers would relate in a linear fashion to the Family TABLE 4
Comparisons of Married to Single Residents on MSPSS Subscales Married Subscale Family Friends Significant Other
*p < .001.
Single
M
SD
M
SD
FU, 46)
5.97 5.86 6.53
.92 .66 .64
5.48 5.39 4.66
1.20 1.07 1.93
2.29 2.91 16.50*
615
MULTIDIMENSIONAL SCALE
subscale, but not to the Friends and Significant Others subscales. Because only one adolescent responded never to the sharing item, this subject was eliminated from the analysis, leaving a total of 71 subjects who responded with ratings of always, almost always, or sometimes to the item. To test the hypothesis of a linear relationship between frequency of sharing with mother and the MSPSS Family subscale, MANOVAs were used to perform a trend analysis (composed of linear and quadratic components), with level of sharing with mother (1-3) as the independent variable and the three MSPSS subscales as the dependent variables. The MANOVA for the linear trend was significant: Wilks's lambda = .65, F(3,66) = 11.75, p < .001. The univariate results, presented in Table 5, provided support for our hypothesis, in that only perceived support from family was related in a linear fashion to reported frequency of sharing concerns with mother: F(1,68) = 34.47, p < .001. In other words, as the frequency increased, perceived support from family increased. The MANOVA for the quadratic trend was not significant, necessitating no examination of the univariate results: Wilks's lambda = .99, F(3, 66) = .l6, p = .92.
DISCUSSION The results of this research have extended the findings of Zimet et al.5 (1988)~ original study and indicate that the MSPSS is psychometrically sound across several different subject groups. Good internal reliability has been demonstrated with pregnant women, adolescents living abroad, and pediatric residents, as well as with the original sample of university undergraduates (Zimet et al., 1988).The: factor structure proposed and tested in the original study has been confirmed again with the prepartum sample. In addition, we demonstrated that subjects, TABLE 5 Analyses of Linear Trends as Functions of Frequency of Sharing With Mother -
Frequenq of Sharing W i t h Mother Subscale Family M SD Friends M SD Significant Other M SD = 23. bn = 35. *p < .00l.
"TI
= 13.
la
2b
3'
F(1, 6811
6.29 .65
5.44 .93
4.57 .98
34.47*
5.66 1.17
5.49 1.16
5.42 1.31
.13
6.20 .72
5.74 1.06
5.58 1.22
3.80
616
ZIMET, POWELL, FARLEY, WERKMAN, BERKOFF
clearly differentiated between sources of support. This conclusion is supported by the factor analysis, the finding that only the Significant Other subscale related to marital status in the resident sample, and the finding that only the Family subscale related to frequency of sharing with mother in the adolescent sample. These results also have helped to confirm the validity of the MSPSS subscales. Although this research has extended and strengthened the findings of Zimet et al.'s (1988) initial study, some issues noted in that study remain to be investigated. First, as with the university undergraduate sample, the MSPSS subscale means for the three subject groups all fell well above the midpoint of 3.5, suggesting that there is a tendency for this instrument to pull for socially desirable responses. It is important to explore the characteristics of the scale after controlling for social desirability. Second, although Blumenthal et a1.k (1987) results lend support for the buffering hypothesis, further explorations of the relationship between life stress and emotional or physical problems as moderated by social support is needed. Finally, it is important to explore specifically what subjects consider as constitutive of "family" in the Family subscale or of "special person" in the Significant Other subscale. The meaning of family, for example, may be dependent on an individual's age, marital status, and/or number of children. Moreover, special person could be taken to refer to a number of different individuals (e.g., girlfriend or boyfriend, spouse, minister, psychotherapist, etc.). Clarification of these issues in future research is necessary.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT An earlier version of this article was presented at the Society for Personality Assessment Annual Meeting in San Diego, March 22-24, 1990.
REFERENCES Blumenthal, J. A., Burg, M. M., Barefoot, J., Williams, R. B., Haney, T., & Zimet, G. D. (1987). Social support, Type A behavior, and coronary artery disease. Psychosomatic Medicine, 49, 331-340. Cohen, S., & McKay, G. (1984). Social support, stress and the buffering hypothesis: A theoretical analysis. In A. Baum, J. E. Singer, & S. I. Taylor (Eds.), Handbook of psychology and health (Vol. 4, pp. 253-267). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Derogatis, L. R., Lipman, R. S., Rickels, K., Uhlenhuth, E. H., & Covi, L. (1974). The Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL): A self-report symptom inventory. Behavioral Science, 19, 1-15. Zimet, G. D., Dahlem, N. W., Zimet, S. G., & Fadey, G. K. (1988). The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. Joural of Personality Assessment, 52, 30-41.
MULTIDIMENSIONAL SCALE
Gregory D. Zimet Department of Pediatrics MetroHealth Medical Center 3395 Scranton Road Cleveland, OH 44109 Received February 28, 1990
617
ISSN: 0022-3891 (Print) 1532-7752 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/hjpa20
Psychometric Characteristics of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support Gregory D. Zimet , Suzanne S. Powell , Gordon K. Farley , Sidney Werkman & Karen A. Berkoff To cite this article: Gregory D. Zimet , Suzanne S. Powell , Gordon K. Farley , Sidney Werkman & Karen A. Berkoff (1990) Psychometric Characteristics of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, Journal of Personality Assessment, 55:3-4, 610-617, DOI: 10.1080/00223891.1990.9674095 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.1990.9674095
Published online: 22 Jun 2011.
Submit your article to this journal
Article views: 387
View related articles
Citing articles: 279 View citing articles
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=hjpa20
JOLJRNAL OF PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT, 1990, 55(3&4),610-617 Copyright 0 1990, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Psychometric Characteristics of the ~ultidimensionalScale of Perceived Social Support Gregory D. Zimet Department of Pediatrics Case Western Reserve university School of Medicine
Suzanne S. Powell Case Western Reserve University
Gordon K. Farley University of Colorado Health Sciences Center
Sidney Werkman Dqartment of Psychiat y Georgetown University School of Medicine
Karen A. Berkoff Case Western Reserve University
The initial study describing the development of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) indicated that it was a psychometricallyi~ound instrument (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet, & FarIey, 1988). The current study attempted to extend the initial findings by demonstrating the internal reliability, factorial validity, and subscale validity of the MSPSS using three different subject groups: (a) 265 pregnant women, (b) 74 adolescents living in Europe with their families, and (c) 55 pediatric residents. The MSPSS was found to have good internal reliability across subject groups. In addition, strong factorial validity was demonstrated, confirming the three-subscale structure of the MSPSS: Family, Friends, and SignificantOther. Finally, strong support was also found for the validity of the Family and Significant Other subscales.
T h e Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) was developed as a brief self-report measure of subjectively assesse$osocialsupport in which
MULTIDlMENSIONAL SCALE
61'1
12-item ratings were made on a 7-point Likert-type scale ranging from very strongly disagree (1) to very strongly agree (7; Zimet et al., 1988). The 12-item MSPSS was designed to measure the perceived adequacy of support from thle following three sources: family (Items 3,4,8, and 1I), friends (Items 6, 7, 9, and 12), and significant other (Items 1, 2, 5, and 10). In the original study (Zimet et al., 1988), the MSPSS and the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL; Derogatis, Lipman, Rickels, Uhlenhuth, & Covi, 1974) were administered to 275 male and female Duke University undergraduates. In this initial study, a principal components factor analysis confirmed thie subscale structure proposed. In addition, coefficient alphas for the subscales and scale as a whole ranged from .85 to .91, indicating good internal reliability. Similarly, test-retest values ranged from .72 to 35, indicating good stability. Adequate construct validity was demonstrated in significant correlations between the MSPSS subscales and the Depression and Anxiety subscales of thie HSCL. In analyzing gender differences, it was found that women reported receiving significantly greater support than men from friends, horn a significant other, and overall. Using an early version of the MSPSS, Blumenthal et al. (1987) looked at thle interaction between social support and Type A versus Type B personality in predicting coronary artery disease. The results of this study indicated that Type A individuals (i.e., those who are very driven and tend to maintain high levels of stress in their lives) with high levels of social support had less coronary artery disease than Type A individuals with low levels of support. No such relationship was found for subjects with Type B personalities (i.e., those who maintain ;a more relaxed lifestyle). These findings help prove the buffering hypothesis of social support as proposed by Cohen and McKay (1984) and others. This hypothesis suggests that social support acts as a buffer against the development of psychological or physical symptoms primarily in individuals who are under stress. Although the findings just reported indicate that the MSPSS is a psychometrically sound instrument, the reliability and validity results reported by Zimet et al. (1988) were obtained using a rather narrowly defined subject sample of male and female undergraduates. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the broader applicability of the MSPSS by evaluating the scale's psychometric: properties with three different subject groups: pregnant women, male and female adolescents, and male and female pediatric residents.
METHOD Subjects As noted, three different sample groups were used. The first group consisted of 265 pregnant women in their third trimester receiving prenatal care at West
612
ZIMET, POWELL, FARLEY, WERKMAN, BERKOFF
Virginia medical facilities. This prepartum sample ranged from 16 to 42 years of age (M = 25.8, SD = 5.3). The second group was comprised of 74 adolescents attending high school in Madrid or Paris (49 females, 25 males). The adolescents ranged from 15 to 19 years of age (M = 16.7, SD = 34). The famiIies of these adolescents were in France and Spain primarily due to requirements of diplomatic, business, or military jobs. The third sample included 55 first- and second-year pediatric residents in training at Cleveland area hospitals (33 women, 22 men). The residents ranged from 24 to 38 years of age (M = 29.2, SD = 3.0).
Instruments and Administration The MSPSS was administered to the prepartum and resident subject groups as part of larger master's thesis studies by the second and fifth authors, respectively. In both of these studies, subjects were asked to complete a number of paperand-pencil inventories, including the MSPSS. Of the 74 adolescent subjects who completed the MSPSS, 72 filled out an additional survey in which they were asked to list persons important to them. Each subject was then asked to rate on a 4-point scale the frequency with which deepest concerns could be shared with this designated person, ranging from always (1) to never (4), and the quality of the subject's feeling about the person, ranging from very positive (1) to very negative (4).
RESULTS Descriptive Statistics The means and standard deviations of the three MSPSS subscales and total scale for the three subject groups are presented in Table 1. The results are quite comparable to Zimet et al.5 (1988) report, with relatively high levels of mean support reported by the subjects in all three groups.
Confirmatory Factor Analysis
A principal components analysis extracted three factors. The varimax rotation factor matrix is presented in Table 2. The items loaded strongly on the subscales for which they were designed, indicating confirmation of the subscaie groupings presented in Zimet et aL's (1988) original study.
MULTIDIMENSIONAL SCALE
613
TABLE 1 Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support: Subscale Means and Standard Deviations Subscales Subject Group
Family
Friends
Significant Other
Total Scale
6.02 1.16
5.64 1.27
6.39 .88
6.01 .90
5.52 1.07
5.48 1.20
5.82 1.08
5.60 .80
5.69 1.07
5.53 .92
5.51 1.73
5.58 .98
Prepartuma
M SD ~dolescents~ M SD Residentsc
M SD
"n = 265. bn = 74.'n = 55.
TABLE 2 Factor Analysis Matrix for MSPSS With Preparturn Sample Factors MSPSS ltem
Friends
Family
Significant Other
Cronbach's coefficient alpha, an internal reliability measure, was obtained for the MSPSS subscales and for the scale as a whole, using all three subject groups. As can be seen in Table 3, the coefficient alpha values ranged from .81 to .90 for the Family subscale, from .90 to .94 for the Friends subscale, from .83 to .98 for the Significant Other subscale, and from .84 to .92 for the scale as a whole..
614
ZIMET, POWELL, FARLEY, WERKMAN, BERKOFF TABLE 3
Cronbach's Coefficient Alpha Values as a Function of Subject Group Subscales Subject Group
Family
Friends
Prepartum Adolescents Residents
.90 .8 1 .83
.94 .92 .90
Significant Other
Total Scale
Overall, therefore, the MSPSS demonstrated very good internal reliability with coefficient alpha levels comparable to those obtained in the original study (Zimet et al., 1988).
Subscale Validity It was possible to assess the validity of the Significant Other and Family subscales using the resident and adolescent samples, respectively. The Significant Other subscale was examined by using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) with the resident sample. The independent variable was marital status (married or single), whereas the dependent variables were the three MSPSS subscales. Our hypothesis was that, compared to the single residents, the married residents would report significantly greater support from a significant other, but would demonstrate no significant difference on the Friends or Family subscale. The overall MANOVA was significant: Hotelling's T' = .36, F(3,44) = 5.32, p < .005. The univariate results, presented in Table 4, provided support for our hypothesis, indicating that married residents reported significantly greater support from a significant other than single residents: F(1,46) = 16.50, p < .001. No significant differences were found for the other two subscales. The validity of the Family subscale was assessed using the adolescent sample. It was hypothesized that subjects' ratings of the frequency with which they can share concerns with their mothers would relate in a linear fashion to the Family TABLE 4
Comparisons of Married to Single Residents on MSPSS Subscales Married Subscale Family Friends Significant Other
*p < .001.
Single
M
SD
M
SD
FU, 46)
5.97 5.86 6.53
.92 .66 .64
5.48 5.39 4.66
1.20 1.07 1.93
2.29 2.91 16.50*
615
MULTIDIMENSIONAL SCALE
subscale, but not to the Friends and Significant Others subscales. Because only one adolescent responded never to the sharing item, this subject was eliminated from the analysis, leaving a total of 71 subjects who responded with ratings of always, almost always, or sometimes to the item. To test the hypothesis of a linear relationship between frequency of sharing with mother and the MSPSS Family subscale, MANOVAs were used to perform a trend analysis (composed of linear and quadratic components), with level of sharing with mother (1-3) as the independent variable and the three MSPSS subscales as the dependent variables. The MANOVA for the linear trend was significant: Wilks's lambda = .65, F(3,66) = 11.75, p < .001. The univariate results, presented in Table 5, provided support for our hypothesis, in that only perceived support from family was related in a linear fashion to reported frequency of sharing concerns with mother: F(1,68) = 34.47, p < .001. In other words, as the frequency increased, perceived support from family increased. The MANOVA for the quadratic trend was not significant, necessitating no examination of the univariate results: Wilks's lambda = .99, F(3, 66) = .l6, p = .92.
DISCUSSION The results of this research have extended the findings of Zimet et al.5 (1988)~ original study and indicate that the MSPSS is psychometrically sound across several different subject groups. Good internal reliability has been demonstrated with pregnant women, adolescents living abroad, and pediatric residents, as well as with the original sample of university undergraduates (Zimet et al., 1988).The: factor structure proposed and tested in the original study has been confirmed again with the prepartum sample. In addition, we demonstrated that subjects, TABLE 5 Analyses of Linear Trends as Functions of Frequency of Sharing With Mother -
Frequenq of Sharing W i t h Mother Subscale Family M SD Friends M SD Significant Other M SD = 23. bn = 35. *p < .00l.
"TI
= 13.
la
2b
3'
F(1, 6811
6.29 .65
5.44 .93
4.57 .98
34.47*
5.66 1.17
5.49 1.16
5.42 1.31
.13
6.20 .72
5.74 1.06
5.58 1.22
3.80
616
ZIMET, POWELL, FARLEY, WERKMAN, BERKOFF
clearly differentiated between sources of support. This conclusion is supported by the factor analysis, the finding that only the Significant Other subscale related to marital status in the resident sample, and the finding that only the Family subscale related to frequency of sharing with mother in the adolescent sample. These results also have helped to confirm the validity of the MSPSS subscales. Although this research has extended and strengthened the findings of Zimet et al.'s (1988) initial study, some issues noted in that study remain to be investigated. First, as with the university undergraduate sample, the MSPSS subscale means for the three subject groups all fell well above the midpoint of 3.5, suggesting that there is a tendency for this instrument to pull for socially desirable responses. It is important to explore the characteristics of the scale after controlling for social desirability. Second, although Blumenthal et a1.k (1987) results lend support for the buffering hypothesis, further explorations of the relationship between life stress and emotional or physical problems as moderated by social support is needed. Finally, it is important to explore specifically what subjects consider as constitutive of "family" in the Family subscale or of "special person" in the Significant Other subscale. The meaning of family, for example, may be dependent on an individual's age, marital status, and/or number of children. Moreover, special person could be taken to refer to a number of different individuals (e.g., girlfriend or boyfriend, spouse, minister, psychotherapist, etc.). Clarification of these issues in future research is necessary.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT An earlier version of this article was presented at the Society for Personality Assessment Annual Meeting in San Diego, March 22-24, 1990.
REFERENCES Blumenthal, J. A., Burg, M. M., Barefoot, J., Williams, R. B., Haney, T., & Zimet, G. D. (1987). Social support, Type A behavior, and coronary artery disease. Psychosomatic Medicine, 49, 331-340. Cohen, S., & McKay, G. (1984). Social support, stress and the buffering hypothesis: A theoretical analysis. In A. Baum, J. E. Singer, & S. I. Taylor (Eds.), Handbook of psychology and health (Vol. 4, pp. 253-267). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Derogatis, L. R., Lipman, R. S., Rickels, K., Uhlenhuth, E. H., & Covi, L. (1974). The Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL): A self-report symptom inventory. Behavioral Science, 19, 1-15. Zimet, G. D., Dahlem, N. W., Zimet, S. G., & Fadey, G. K. (1988). The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. Joural of Personality Assessment, 52, 30-41.
MULTIDIMENSIONAL SCALE
Gregory D. Zimet Department of Pediatrics MetroHealth Medical Center 3395 Scranton Road Cleveland, OH 44109 Received February 28, 1990
617
