Norbeck Social Support Questionnaire [NSSQ-19]

Description

The Norbeck Social Support Questionnaire (NSSQ) was developed by Norbeck, Lindsey, and Carrieri (1981) to systematically assess an individual’s perceived and available social support. The instrument is based on a social network approach, in which respondents identify significant people in their personal network and then evaluate the type and degree of support provided by each person.

The NSSQ primarily examines dimensions such as emotional support, tangible or practical assistance, relationship duration, and frequency of contact. Emotional support refers to behaviors such as acceptance, understanding, affection, and reassurance, whereas tangible support concerns practical or material assistance provided when needed.

Objective

The main objective of the NSSQ is to provide a quantitative and qualitative assessment of an individual’s social network and the support available within it.

The questionnaire can be used to investigate the relationship between social support and psychological well-being, stress, anxiety, depression, adjustment to illness, pregnancy-related experiences, family functioning, and overall quality of life.

It can also help researchers and healthcare professionals identify individuals with limited or insufficient support networks and support the development of interventions aimed at strengthening social connectedness and available coping resources.

Structure

The NSSQ is primarily a network-based questionnaire, meaning that social support is assessed in relation to specific individuals within the respondent’s personal network.

Participants identify important people such as family members, partners, friends, colleagues, or other significant individuals and subsequently rate different characteristics of these relationships and the support they receive.

Depending on the version or research adaptation used, the questionnaire can generate indicators related to functional support, network size, relationship duration, frequency of contact, and the loss of important supportive relationships.

Scoring

In the NSSQ-19 version, individual items may be rated using a four-point response scale:

1 = A little
2 = A moderate amount
3 = Quite a bit
4 = A great deal

Higher scores generally indicate greater perceived or available social support. However, because the NSSQ includes several distinct indices and has been adapted in different forms, scoring should follow the instructions provided for the specific version being administered.

Scores are generally interpreted as continuous measures rather than according to diagnostic cut-off values.

Psychometric Properties

The original and subsequent studies of the NSSQ have examined its reliability, validity, and factor structure across different populations. The questionnaire has been widely used in nursing, psychology, public health, and social science research.

Research has supported the usefulness of the instrument for assessing different aspects of functional social support, while later studies have further investigated and confirmed aspects of its underlying factor structure.

When the NSSQ is translated or culturally adapted, researchers should reassess internal consistency, construct validity, factor structure, and criterion-related validity within the target population.

Applications

The NSSQ has been used with a wide range of populations, including pregnant women, psychiatric patients, individuals with chronic health conditions, and people experiencing elevated levels of stress or social vulnerability.

It can also be used to investigate the protective role of social support in relation to stress, anxiety, depression, coping, social adjustment, and psychological well-being.

Its network-based structure makes it particularly useful when researchers need to examine not only the overall amount of support available but also who provides that support and how individual relationships contribute to the respondent’s social resources.

Conclusion

The Norbeck Social Support Questionnaire is a comprehensive instrument for examining both the structure and functional characteristics of an individual’s social network.

Its focus on specific supportive relationships provides a more detailed perspective than general measures of perceived social support. The NSSQ can therefore contribute substantially to understanding how social relationships influence psychological well-being, coping, adaptation, and quality of life.

References

Norbeck, J. S., Lindsey, A. M., & Carrieri, V. L. (1981). The development of an instrument to measure social support. Nursing Research, 30(5), 264–269.

Norbeck, J. S., Lindsey, A. M., & Carrieri, V. L. (1983). Further development of the Norbeck Social Support Questionnaire: Normative data and validity testing. Nursing Research, 32(1), 4–9.

Norbeck, J. S. (1984). The Norbeck Social Support Questionnaire. Birth Defects Original Article Series, 20(5), 45–57.

Byers, P. H., & Mullis, M. R. (1987). Reliability and validity of the Norbeck Social Support Questionnaire in psychiatric inpatients. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 47(2), 445–448.

Norbeck, J. S., & Anderson, N. J. (1989). Life stress, social support, and anxiety in mid- and late-pregnancy among low-income women. Research in Nursing & Health, 12(5), 281–287.

Gigliotti, E. (2002). A confirmation of the factor structure of the Norbeck Social Support Questionnaire. Nursing Research, 51(5), 276–284.

Zachariah, R. (2009). Social support, life stress, and anxiety as predictors of pregnancy complications in low-income women. Research in Nursing & Health, 32, 391–404.