Description

Background:
The Social Support Microsystem Scale (SOC) was developed by modifying and elaborating Cauce’s Seminal Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS; Cauce te. al., 1982). The SOC was developed and and validated for poor, urban and culturally diverse adolescents to assess their self-reported transactions with family, peer, school, and neighborhood microsystems in order to assess social support or cohesion. Neighborhood relationships were operationalized in terms of cohesion or a psychological sense of community. The social support scale consists of 21 items, whereas the neighborhood component consists of six separate items (items 28 and 29 were added to this section based on CCH projects).

Developers:
Edward Seidman
LaRue Allen
J Lawrence Aber
Christina Mitchell
Joanna Feinman
Hirokazu Yoshikawa
Katherine Anne Comtois
Judith Golz
Robin L. Miller
Blana Ortiz-Torres
Gillian Carty Roper

Copyright:
1995 Plenum Publishing Corporation

References:
Seidmen et al. (1995). Development and validation of adolescent-perceived microsystem scales: social support, daily hassles, and involvement. American Journal of Community Psychology, 23 (3), 355.

Reliability:
The micosystem specific cronbach alpha’s ranged from 0.74 to 0.81 in various studies. The cronbach alpha’s within the validation paper:

21 item total support=0.80
Neighborhood specific support=0.83