Multiple replication of the factor structure of the inventory of socially supportive behaviors

Abstract

Interest in the beneficial effects of social support for the physical and psychological well-being of individuals has rapidly grown. The Inventory of Socially Supportive Behaviors is one promising new questionnaire that has been designed to measure this psychosocial dimension. While in many ways this is a psychometrically sound questionnaire, the number of stable factors it includes has yet to be established. This problem was solved in the present study by using the FACTOREP procedure, in which a series of factor analyses are conducted with a reduced number of factors being used for each successive rotation until a structure is found and replicated across independent subject groups. This is achieved by calculating matrices of s index values to assess factor similarity at increasing hyperplane cutoff levels, that is, with progressively more stringent criteria for inclusion of salient items in each cluster. This procedure indicated that three factors could be replicated, and these were interpreted as Nondirective Support, Directive Guidance, and Tangible Assistance. The three subscales each had high reliability and should provide a useful basis for specifying the type of social support that is effective in reducing distress in different groups of troubled people.

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