A MEASUREMENT OF SOCIAL SUPPORT IN EPIDEMIOLOGIC RESEARCH - THE SOCIAL EXPERIENCES CHECKLIST TESTED IN A GENERAL-POPULATION IN THE NETHERLANDS

Study objective - This study aimed to examine in a general population the psychometric qualities of an instrument designed to measure positi ve and negative social experiences that had been developed in a clinic al setting. Design - The Netherlands monitoring project on cardiovascu lar disease risk factors, a large scale population based study (compri sing 36 588 men and women aged 20 to 59 years) carried out in three Du tch towns (Amsterdam, Doetinchem, and Maastricht) offered the possibil ity of testing the strength of this instrument cross sectionally. Meas urements and main results - The social experiences checklist (SEC) whi ch resulted fi om a research project on the quality of life of cancer patients was used. The independence of positive and negative experienc es was confirmed. The reliability of both the positive and negative ex periences dimension was good (Cronbach's alpha= 0.82 and 0.72 respecti vely). In accordance with the results of a study on cancer patients, t he theoretically derived four dimensions in the experience of social s upport did not seem to be independent. The validity of the SEC was con firmed by Pearson correlations with neuroticism and coping styles. Neu roticism seemed to be negatively correlated with positive social exper iences and was positively correlated with negative social experiences. The coping style of seeking information and direct action was positiv ely correlated with positive social experiences. Coping by withdrawal was negatively correlated with negative social experiences. Women and highly educated people seemed to have more positive and fewer negative social experiences than men and people with less education. Younger p eople had positive social experiences than people. The oldest group in the study, those aged 50 to 59, reported fewer negative social experi ences than any other age group. Conclusions - Similar results were fou nd , in a study of cancer patients. This underlines the usefulness of the instrument not only for cancer patients but also in survey researc h in a general population.