Assessment of perceived support in the context of emergency: Development and validation of the psycho-social support scale

Abstract

In research and clinical contexts, it is important to briefly evaluate perceived Psychological and Social Support (PSS) to plan psychological interventions and allocate efforts and resources. However, an appropriate brief assessment tool for PSS was lacking. This study aimed at developing a brief and accurate scale to specifically measure PSS in clinical and emergency contexts, with specific, relevant, targeted, and irredundant items. Experienced clinicians developed the perceived Psycho-Social Support Scale (PSSS) and administered it to a clinical sample (N = 112) seeking psychological help during the COVID-19 emergency. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis examined the PSSS internal structure, and a Multiple Indicator and Multiple Causes model investigated its association with the number of sessions and emotional symptoms. The PSSS showed good psychometric properties and the Confirmatory Factor Analysis provided acceptable fit indexes for a unidimensional structure. The Multiple Indicators and Multiple Causes revealed that more sessions and emotional symptoms were associated with lower PSSS scores. The PSSS is a reliable brief tool to measure PS and could be useful to individualize treatments (i.e., number of sessions) to efficiently allocate efforts and resources in clinical contexts and emergencies (e.g., earthquake, COVID-19 pandemic).

Measuring Motivations to Eat Palatable Foods: Adaptation and Psychometric Properties of the Italian Version of the Palatable Eating Motives Scale (PEMS-IT)

“…Another limitation of this study was the lack of investigation into the divergent validity of the instrument. Future studies should consider evaluating this aspect using modern statistical approaches [ 64 ]. Furthermore, from a psychometric point of view, it is important to note that some items (Item#2 and Item#10), distributed on all questionnaire scales, exhibit factor loadings below 0.5.…”

Assessing Discriminant Validity through Structural Equation Modeling: The Case of Eating Compulsivity

“…Moreover, the cross-sectional research design did not allow for observation of whether these findings remained consistent over time. Finally, in this study, differences associated with biological sex and gender were not considered [ 75 ], nor were factors related to broader social [ 76 , 77 ] and environmental conditions [ 78 ]. Future studies are warranted to either confirm or refute these findings and to broaden their applicability to other populations.…”

Predicting resilience during the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United Kingdom: Cross-sectional and longitudinal results

“…This is consistent with a wide range of evidence that identification with groups is facilitates mental health and protects against threats to wellbeing to the extent to which this process has been described as a ‘social cure’ [ 61 ]. Individuals reporting higher belongingness to neighbourhood may also perceive higher social support (both instrumental and emotional), an important resource for psychological health [ 62 ].…”