THE MEASUREMENT OF SOCIAL SUPPORT IN THE EUROPEAN RESEARCH ON INCAPACITATING DISEASES AND SOCIAL SUPPORT - THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOCIAL SUPPORT QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TRANSACTIONS (SSQT)
Tpbm. Suurmeijer et al., THE MEASUREMENT OF SOCIAL SUPPORT IN THE EUROPEAN RESEARCH ON INCAPACITATING DISEASES AND SOCIAL SUPPORT - THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOCIAL SUPPORT QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TRANSACTIONS (SSQT), Social science & medicine, 40(9), 1995, pp. 1221-1229
Citations number
40
Categorie Soggetti
Social Sciences, Biomedical","Public, Environmental & Occupation Heath
Social support is supposed to have a beneficial effect on the health a
nd wellbeing of people. It is a central concept in the 'EUropean Resea
rch on Incapacitating DIseaes and Social Support' (EURIDISS). In gener
al, two main distinctions concerning social support are made in the li
terature, providing four basic dimensions or types of social support:
a social-emotional vs an instrumental type of social support, and a 'c
risis' or 'problem-oriented' vs 'everyday' or 'daily' type of social s
upport. Based on these types of social support, a series of items were
formulated to measure actual supportive interactions or exchanges of
resources. The items were spread over five scales. The social-emotiona
l type of social support comprised three scales; daily emotional suppo
rt; problem-oriented emotional support; and social companionship, whil
e the instrumental type of social support consisted of two scales: the
daily instrumental support and the problem-oriented instrumental supp
ort. Together, these items and scales constitute the so-called 'Social
Support Questionnaire for Transactions' (SSQT). The main objective of
this paper is to investigate whether one and the same instrument, i.e
. the SSQT, allows for meaningful comparisons between patients with rh
eumatoid arthritis from different countries. More specifically, the di
mensionality and invariance of the dimensions across countries of the
SSQT are explored. To this end, patients from four different European
countries (France, Norway. The Netherlands and Sweden) were asked to f
ill in the SSQT. The analysis of the data using principal component an
alysis (PCA) and simultaneous component analysis (SCA), did yield the
intended scales, although the internal consistency of one of them, the
daily instrumental support scale, is questionable. It is concluded th
at, particularly in the area of social-emotional support, the SSQT is
a useful instrument for international comparative research.