Perceived social support from family and friends: measurement across disparate samples

Abstract

This research investigates the psychometric properties of the Perceived Social Support (PSS; Procidano & Heller, 1983) from family and friends across three samples: a chronic-psychiatric sample, a diabetic sample, and an undergraduate college student sample. Comparisons of internal consistency, central tendency, and dispersion for both the perceived family support (PSS-FA) and the perceived friend support (PSS-FR) are reported, as are the relationships between these two scales for each group. Correlations with general health status and psychiatric symptomatology are also reported. The utility of this measure for generalizable research on social support is discussed.