Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support

American Undergraduate Students (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet, & Farley, 1988) 

** (n= 69 Duke University undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory psychology course re-tested 2-3 months after initially completing the questionnaire) 

• Significant Other Subscale: SEM= .66 
• Family Subscale: SEM= .43 
• Friends Subscale: SEM= .47 
• Total: SEM= .33

American Undergraduate Students (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet, & Farley, 1988) 

** (n= 69 Duke University undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory psychology course re-tested 2-3 months after initially completing the questionnaire) 

• Significant Other Subscale at 95% CI: MDC= 1.83 
• Family Subscale at 95% CI: MDC= 1.20 
• Friends Subscale at 95% CI: MDC= 1.30 
• Total at 95% CI: MDC= .92

American Undergraduate Students (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet, & Farley, 1988) 

** (n= 275 Duke University undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory psychology course; Mean Age= 18.6, SD= .88) 

• Significant Other Subscale: Mean= 5.74, SD= 1.25 
• Family Subscale: Mean= 5.80, SD= 1.12 
• Friends Subscale: Mean= 5.85, SD= .94 
• Total: Mean= 5.80, SD= .86 

Pregnant American Women (Zimet, Powell, Farley, Werkman, & Berkoff, 1990) 

** (n= 265 pregnant women in their third trimester; Mean Age= 25.8, SD= 5.3) 

• Significant Other Subscale: Mean= 6.39, SD= .88 
• Family Subscale: Mean= 6.02, SD= 1.16 
• Friends Subscale: Mean= 5.64, SD= 1.27 
• Total: Mean= 6.01, SD= .90 

European Adolescents (Zimet, Powell, Farley, Werkman, & Berkoff, 1990) 

** (n= 74 adolescents attending high school in Madrid or Paris; Mean Age= 16.7, SD= .84) 

• Significant Other Subscale: Mean= 5.82, SD= 1.08 
• Family Subscale: Mean= 5.52, SD= 1.07 
• Friends Subscale: Mean= 5.48, SD= 1.20 
• Total: Mean= 5.60, SD= .80 

American Pediatric Residents (Zimet, Powell, Farley, Werkman, & Berkoff, 1990) 

** (n= 55 first- and second-year pediatric residents; Mean Age= 29.2, 3.0) 

• Significant Other Subscale: Mean= 5.51, SD= 1.73 
• Family Subscale: Mean= 5.69, SD= 1.07 
• Friends Subscale: Mean= 5.53, SD= .92 
• Total: Mean= 5.58, SD= .98 

Pakistani & Nepalese Migrants Living in Hong Kong (Tonsing, Zimet, & Tse, 2012) 

Pakistani Sample

** (n= 148, Mean Age= 32.4, SD= 8.09) 

Men: 

• Significant Other Subscale: Mean= 5.50, SD= 1.22 
• Family Subscale: Mean= 5.69, SD= 1.12 
• Friends Subscale: Mean= 5.65, SD= 1.07 
• Total: Mean= 5.62, SD= 1.02 

Women: 

• Significant Other Subscale: Mean= 5.40, SD= 1.49 
• Family Subscale: Mean= 5.72, SD= 1.27 
• Friends Subscale: Mean= 5.33, SD= 1.35 
• Total: Mean= 5.48, SD= 1.23 

Nepalese Sample

** (n=153; Mean Age= 33.2, SD= 8.90) 

Men: 

• Significant Other Subscale: Mean= 4.49, SD= 1.77 
• Family Subscale: Mean= 5.44, SD= 1.44 
• Friends Subscale: Mean= 4.87, SD= 1.33 
• Total: Mean= 4.93, SD= 1.30 

Women: 

• Significant Other Subscale: Mean= 4.84, SD= 1.60 
• Family Subscale: Mean= 5.70, SD= 1.14 
• Friends Subscale: Mean= 4.58, SD= 1.27 
• Total: Mean= 5.04, SD= 1.10 

Patients with Schizophrenia (Living in Singapore; Used a Mandarin & Malays translated MSPSS) (Vaingankar, Abdin, & Chong, 2012) 

** (n= 959 patients with schizophrenia; Mean Age= 43.2, SD= 10.3) 

Total Sample: 

• Significant Other Subscale: Mean= 4.6, SD= 1.8 
• Family Subscale: Mean= 4.7, SD= 1.7 
• Friends Subscale: Mean= 3.6, SD= 1.8 
• Total: Mean= 4.3, SD= 1.4 

Men: 

• Significant Other Subscale: Mean= 4.4, SD= 1.8 
• Family Subscale: Mean= 4.5, SD= 1.8 
• Friends Subscale: Mean= 3.5, SD= 1.8 
• Total: Mean= 4.2, SD= 1.4 

Women: 

• Significant Other Subscale: Mean= 4.9, SD= 1.7 
• Family Subscale: Mean= 4.9, SD= 1.7 
• Friends Subscale: Mean= 3.8, SD= 1.8 
• Total: Mean= 4.5, SD= 1.4 

South African Youth Exposed to Trauma & Violence (Bruwer, Emsley, Kidd, Lochner, & Seedat, 2008) 

** (n= 787; only respondents with complete data sets were retained for analyses [n= 502], recruited from five high schools in Cape Town, South Africa; Mean Age= 16.22, SD= 1.84) 

• Significant Other Subscale: Mean= 21.49, SD= 6.99 
• Family Subscale: Mean= 21.08, SD= 6.59 
• Friends Subscale: Mean= 20.37, SD= 6.75

Undergraduate Student (American)

(Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet, & Farley, 1988) 

Overall Test-Retest Reliability: Adequate (ICC=.85) 

• Significant Other Subscale: Adequate (ICC= .72) 
• Family Subscale: Adequate (ICC= .85) 
• Friends Subscale: Adequate (ICC= .75) 

Malaysian Medical Students (Malay Version)

(Ng, Amer Siddiq, Aida, Zainal, & Koh, 2010) 

Overall Test-Retest Reliability: Adequate (Spearman’s rho= .77, p< .01)

Undergraduate Student (American) (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet, & Farley, 1988) 

Overall internal consistency was Excellent (Chronbach’s Alpha= .88) 

• Significant Other Subscale: Excellent (Chronbach’s Alpha= .91)* 
• Family Subscale: Excellent (Chronbach’s Alpha= .87) 
• Friends Subscale: Excellent (Chronbach’s Alpha= .85) 

*Scores higher than .9 may indicate redundancy in the scale questions. 

Individuals with Schizophrenia (Singapore)(Vaingankar, Abdin, & Chong, 2012) 

• Significant Other Subscale: Excellent (Chronbach’s Alpha= .90)* 
• Family Subscale: Excellent (Chronbach’s Alpha= .90)* 
• Friends Subscale: Excellent (Chronbach’s Alpha= .91)* 

*Scores higher than .9 may indicate redundancy in the scale questions. 

Pregnant Women, European Adolescents, and Pediatric Residents (Zimet, Powell, Farley, Werkman, & Berkoff, 1990) 

**Three different sample groups were used including: (1) 265 pregnant women (Mean Age= 25, SD= 5.3). (2) 74 European adolescents (49 Females, 25 Males; Mean Age= 16.7, SD= .84), and (3) 55 second-year pediatric residents (33 Females, 22 Males; Mean Age= 29.2, SD= 3.0) 

• Overall Total Scale 
  •  Prepartum Group: Excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha= .92)* 
  • Adolescent Group: Excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha= .84)
  • Resident Group: Excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha= .90)* 
• Significant Other Subscale
  • Prepartum Group: Excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha= .90)* 
  • Adolescent Group: Excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha= .83)
  • Resident Group: Excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha= .98)* 
• Family Subscale
  • Prepartum Group: Excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha= .90)* 
  • Adolescent Group: Excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha= .81)
  • Resident Group: Excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha= .83) 
• Friend’s Subscale
  • Prepartum Group: Excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha= .94)* 
  • Adolescent Group: Excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha= .92)* 
  • Resident Group: Excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha= .90)* 

*Scores higher than .9 may indicate redundancy in the scale questions. 

Pakistani and Nepalese migrants living in Hong Kong : (Tonsing, Zimet, & Tse, 2012) 

Internal consistency for the Total MSPSS-N (Nepalese Version) was Excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha= .9)* 

• Family Subscale: Excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha= .86)
• Friends Subscale: Excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha= .84)
• Significant Others: Excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha= .80) 

Internal consistency for the total MSPSS-U (Urdu Version) was Excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha= .93)* 

• Family Subscale: Excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha= .91)*
• Friends Subscale: Excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha= .9)* 

*Scores higher than .9 may indicate redundancy in the scale questions. 

Hong Kong Adolescents: (Cheng & Chan, 2004) 

• Family Subscale: Adequate (Cronbach’s Alpha= .78) 
• Friends Subscale: Adequate (Cronbach’s Alpha= .76)
• Significant Others: Poor (Cronbach’s Alpha= .69) 

Malaysian Medical Students: (Ng et al., 2010) 

Internal consistency for the total MSPSS was Excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha= .89) 

• Family Subscale: Excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha= .94)*
• Friends Subscale: Excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha= .88)
• Significant Others: Excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha= .82) 

*Scores higher than .9 may indicate redundancy in the scale questions. 

Patients with schizophrenia (Vaingankar, Abdin & Chong 2012) 

• Family Subscale: Excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha= .90)*
• Friends Subscale: Excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha= .91)*
• Significant Others: Excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha= .90)* 

*Scores higher than .9 may indicate redundancy in the scale questions.

Convergent validity:

American undergraduate students: (Zimet et al., 1988; n = 275, mean age = 18.6 (0.88) years) 

• Depression (as measured by the subsale of the HSCL) was found to be significantly negatively correlated with all scales: Family (r = -.24, p <.01), Friends (r = -2.4, p<.01), Significant Other (r = -.13, p <.05), Total (r = -.25, p<.01). 

• Anxiety (as measured by the subsale of the HSCL) was found to be significantly negatively correlated with the Family subscale (r =-.18, p<.01). 

Pakistani and Nepalese migrants living in Hong Kong : (Tonsing, Zimet, and Tse, 2012) 

• Adequate to Excellent predictive validity among all three subscales: family, friends, and significant others on he MSPSS-N. Family was related to friends,( r =.530; p < .01) family with significant others r =.540; p < .01, and significant others with friends (r =.575; p < .01). 

• Adequate predictive validity for two factors only (family and significant others loaded on a single factor); friends subscale was retained. However, both family and friends subscales were significantly correlated (r=.722; p< .01). 

Arab immigrant women in the United States: (Aroian, Templin, & Ramaswamy, 2010) 

• Correlation between the three subscales (Husbands, Friends, Family) significant for Family with Friends and Husbands (r = 0.26, 0.15 respectively) 

• Friends and Family subscales positively correlated with seeking social support (r = 0.18, 0.16 respectively)

• Friends and Family subscales positively correlated with problem focused coping (r = 0.16, 0.17 respectively)

Discriminant validity:

South African youth exposed to trauma and violence: (Bruwer, Emsley, Kidd, Lochner & Seedat 2008) 

• Positive correlation between perceived social support and resilience, and a negative correlation between perceived social support and depression, exposure to community violence, and other potentially life threatening trauma. 

Pakistani and Nepalese migrants living in Hong Kong : (Tonsing, Zimet, and Tse, 2012) 

• Authors present a theory of the MSPSS being negatively correlated to various symptoms of anxiety and depression. Within the MSPSS-N, the Family subscale was inversely correlated with depression, stress, and anxiety (p < .01); the Friend subscale with stress (p < .05); and the Significant Other subscale with anxiety (p < .05). 

• Although the family and friends subscales were inversely correlated with depression and stress within the MSPSS-U, this was not the case with anxiety. 

Malaysian Medical Students: (Ng et al., 2010) 

• All three subscales correlated inversely with the General Health Questionnaire: Friends (Spearman’s rho = -0.14, p <.05), Family (rho = -0.23, p<.01), Significant Other (rho =-.21, p<.01) 
• All three subscales correlated inversely with the Beck Depression Inventory: Friends subscale (rho = -0.20, p < 0.01), Family (rho =-0.27, p < 0.01), Significant Other (rho =-0.27). 

Arab women immigrants in the United States: (Aroian, Templin, & Ramaswamy, 2010) 

• Social support from husbands negatively correlated with Profile of Mood States score (r = -.34) showing less signs of self-blame and avoidance. 
• Daily Hassles Scale for spouse negatively correlated with husband support (r = -0.58) showing less hassles from husbands with more support

Singapore Patients with schizophrenia (Vaingankar, Abdin & Chong 2012) 

• Confirmatory factor analysis how that first-order 3 factor model and final higher order 3-factor model adequately fulfilled the criteria for good fit. 

Arab women immigrants in the United States: (Aroian, Templin, & Ramaswamy, 2010)

• Confirmatory Factor Analysis showed comparative fit index = 0.96 (RMSEA = 0.06)