Perceived Social Support Scale [PSSS-12]

Description

The Perceived Social Support Scale (PSSS-12) is a brief 12-item instrument designed to assess the extent to which an individual perceives that they receive support from their social environment.

The scale examines three main sources of social support: family, friends, and significant others. Scores from these three dimensions can be combined to provide an overall indication of perceived social support.

Purpose

The main purpose of the PSSS-12 is to measure the perceived social support experienced by an individual in everyday life.

This assessment can help researchers and health professionals better understand the level of social resources available to a person and the possible role of these resources in psychological well-being and coping with stressful situations.

Structure

The PSSS-12 consists of 12 items organized around three primary dimensions:

Family Support

Support from Friends

Support from Significant Others

This multidimensional structure allows both an overall evaluation of perceived social support and a more specific examination of the contribution of each source of support.

Scoring

Each item is rated on a five-point Likert scale:

1 = Strongly Disagree
2 = Disagree
3 = Neutral / Undecided
4 = Agree
5 = Strongly Agree

Scores for the items within each dimension are summed to generate separate scores for family support, support from friends, and support from significant others. These dimension scores can then be combined to obtain an overall perceived social support score.

Higher scores indicate higher levels of perceived social support.

Reliability and Validity

Psychometric evaluation of the PSSS may include assessment of internal consistency, commonly using Cronbach’s alpha. The source material notes that values above 0.70 are generally considered acceptable.

Validity may be examined through comparisons with other established measures of social support and by exploring correlations with indicators of psychological well-being and behavior.

Applications

The PSSS-12 may be used in research examining social support, mental health, psychological well-being, resilience, and coping with stress.

It may also be applied in clinical, educational, and social settings to identify individuals with limited support networks and to support the development of interventions aimed at strengthening social resources.

Reference Information

The source file lists the following contact/reference information:

Ronald Okada, Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.