Social Support
for Adolescents Scale (SSAS)
Keywords:
Social Support, Adolescents
Background:
The following scale can be used to assess social support
among adolescents (Seidman et al., 1995). A 21-item social support measure can
be derived from the instructions below. This type of scale was originally developed
by Cauce and colleagues (Cauce et al., 1982).
Developer(s):
Ana Mari Cauce
Copyright:
Publisher: Plenum Publishing
Subscales:
See Seidman et al., 1995, for information on subscales.
Reliability:
Internal consistency:
Cronbach alpha = 0.80 (Seidman et al., 1995)
Assessment:
Scale instructions:
The respondent is asked three questions about seven individuals that may be
in their life. A category for other persons can be included. However, the authors
only provide data analyses for seven people as rated by the participants in
their study.
The first question is used to assess
emotional social support:
- When you go to talk about a personal problem, how helpful is each of the
following people?
The second question is used to assess instrumental social
support.
- When you need money and other things, how helpful is
each of the following people?
The final question can be used to assess the respondents
satisfaction with the person being rated.
- How much do you have fun with each of the following people?
Each of the following types of people that may be in the
adolescents' life are shown here:
- Group of close friends
- Kids your age
- Father
- Mother
- Sisters/brothers
- Principal/assistant principal
- Teacher
- Other people (Other categories used in previous studies
include: Guidance counselors, adult not mentioned above, etc.)
RESPONSE FORMAT - TO BE USED FOR ALL THREE
QUESTION TYPES
- Not at all
- Somewhat
- A great deal
References:
- Seidman, E., Allen, L., Aber. J.L., Mitchell, C., Feinman,
J., Yoshikawa, H., Comtois, K.A., Golz, J., Miller, R.L., Ortiz-Torres, B.,
Roper, G.C. (1995). Development and validation of adolescent perceived microsystem
scales: social support, daily hassles, and involvement. American
Journal of Community Psychology, 23, 355 - 388.
- Cauce, A., Felner, R.D., and Primavera, J. (1982) Social support in high-risk
adolescents: Structural components and adaptive impact. American
Journal of Community Psychology, 10, 417-428
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