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Modes of social support: The social support behaviors (SS‐B) scale
Author(s) -
Vaux Alan,
Riedel Sharon,
Stewart Doreen
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
american journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.113
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1573-2770
pISSN - 0091-0562
DOI - 10.1007/bf00919279
Subject(s) - social support , psychology , health psychology , scale (ratio) , measure (data warehouse) , social psychology , applied psychology , public health , computer science , medicine , data mining , physics , nursing , quantum mechanics
Conclusion The SS‐B appears to be a promising measure of five modes of available supportive behavior: emotional support, socializing, practical assistance, financial assistance, and advice/guidance. The measure was designed to assess supportive behavior available from family and from friends. For specific purposes the measure might be modified to tap enacted supportive behavior, as was done in Study 4, or might focus on different sources (cf. Tardy, 1985). Further evidence of the divergence of mode‐specific scales would be valuable and might be demonstrated by comparing samples with mode‐specific deficits, by comparing support received for different problem types (in a more sophisticated fashion than was done here), and by showing differentiated associations between modes of support and various outcome variables. The reliable and valid assessment of specific modes of supportive behavior is an important agenda item in social support research: Such a measure would allow more elaborate theories to be tested, and will undoubtedly prove essential in a complete understanding of social support processes.