Developing the perceived social support scale for older adults: A mixed-method study

Shima Nazari; Pouya Farokhnezhad Afshar; Leila Sadeghmoghadam; Alireza Namazi Shabestari; Akram Farhadi; Shima Nazari; Pouya Farokhnezhad Afshar; Leila Sadeghmoghadam; Alireza Namazi Shabestari; Akram Farhadi

doi:10.3934/publichealth.2020007

AIMS Public Health

2020, Volume 7, Issue 1: 66-80. doi: 10.3934/publichealth.2020007

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Research article

Developing the perceived social support scale for older adults: A mixed-method study

1.
Department of Gerontological Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
2.
Department of Gerontology, School of Behavioral Sciences and Mental Health (Tehran Institute of Psychiatry), Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
3.
Department of Nursing, School of Nursing, Social Development and Health Promotion Center, Gonabad University of Medical Sciences, Gonabad, Iran
4.
Department of Geriatric Medicine, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
5.
Department of Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran

Received: 25 November 2019 Accepted: 23 January 2020 Published: 06 February 2020

Social support has an important impact on the well-being of the elderly. Some studies have shown that perceived social support is more important than received social support. Perceived social support has different definitions across different age groups and cultures. So, this sequential exploratory mixed-method study was designed to develop and validate a perceived social support scale for community-dwelling elderly. In the qualitative phase, the perspectives of the elderly on perceived social support were defined through directed content analysis. Then, an extensive item pool was designed based on the elderly's perception and review of the literature. In the quantitative phase, the validity (content, face, and construct) and reliability (internal consistency, stability) of the newly developed scale was assessed using the sampling of five hundred elderly. The final scale consists of 34 items with domains of “emotional support”, “practical support”, “spiritual support”, “negative interactions” and “satisfaction with support received” that explained 58% of the total variance of the scale. The internal consistency varied from Cronbach's α = 0.70 to 0.87 for the subscales and as 0.92 for the whole scale. The study showed that the scale as a valid and reliable instrument can be used for the proper measurement of perceived social support among the elderly.
- elderly,
- perceived social support,
- scale development,
- validation
Citation: Shima Nazari, Pouya Farokhnezhad Afshar, Leila Sadeghmoghadam, Alireza Namazi Shabestari, Akram Farhadi. Developing the perceived social support scale for older adults: A mixed-method study[J]. AIMS Public Health, 2020, 7(1): 66-80. doi: 10.3934/publichealth.2020007

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Abstract

Social support has an important impact on the well-being of the elderly. Some studies have shown that perceived social support is more important than received social support. Perceived social support has different definitions across different age groups and cultures. So, this sequential exploratory mixed-method study was designed to develop and validate a perceived social support scale for community-dwelling elderly. In the qualitative phase, the perspectives of the elderly on perceived social support were defined through directed content analysis. Then, an extensive item pool was designed based on the elderly's perception and review of the literature. In the quantitative phase, the validity (content, face, and construct) and reliability (internal consistency, stability) of the newly developed scale was assessed using the sampling of five hundred elderly. The final scale consists of 34 items with domains of “emotional support”, “practical support”, “spiritual support”, “negative interactions” and “satisfaction with support received” that explained 58% of the total variance of the scale. The internal consistency varied from Cronbach's α = 0.70 to 0.87 for the subscales and as 0.92 for the whole scale. The study showed that the scale as a valid and reliable instrument can be used for the proper measurement of perceived social support among the elderly.

Conflicts of interest

All authors declare no conflicts of interest in this paper.

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