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Adaptation and Psychometric Evaluation of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support for Arab American Adolescents
Author(s) -
Ramaswamy Vidya,
Aroian Karen J.,
Templin Thomas
Publication year - 2009
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/s10464-008-9220-x
Subject(s) - psychology , social support , health psychology , construct validity , confirmatory factor analysis , clinical psychology , scale (ratio) , coping (psychology) , psychometrics , developmental psychology , public health , social psychology , structural equation modeling , medicine , statistics , physics , nursing , mathematics , quantum mechanics
The multidimensional scale of perceived social support (MSPSS) was revised for Arab American adolescents (MSPSS‐AA). Items measuring social support from significant others were omitted and items measuring support from school personnel were added based on advice from cultural experts. The sample consisted of 635 Arab American young adolescents in metropolitan Detroit. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supported the proposed three‐factor solution (family, friends, and school personnel). Internal consistency coefficients for the three subscales of family ( α = 0.63), friends ( α = 0.75), school personnel ( α = 0.72) were good. As predicted, perceived support from family, friends, and school personnel were inversely related to self reports of daily hassles and internalizing behavior and positively related to assistance seeking coping, which provides evidence for construct validity. Support for discriminant validity was also demonstrated with significantly larger correlations between the MSPSS‐AA Family subscale and daily hassles specific to parents and the MSPSS‐AA Friend subscale and daily hassles specific to peers. These finding suggest that the MSPSS‐AA is reliable and valid for use with Arab‐American adolescents.