Brief scales for measurement of functional social support and psychological resources in French-speaking adults
Abstract
Objectives Psychological resources and social support are important determinants of health, but brief and validated scales measuring these dimensions in French are lacking.Methods Instruments measuring self-esteem and mastery, and affective and confident social support were administered by mail to 1257 university students. Factor analysis, internal consistency statistics, and correlations with related variables were used to derive abbreviated scales and confirm their validity.Results Factor analysis and item reduction yielded four brief scales: mastery (4 items), self-esteem (4 items), affective social support (2 items), and problem-solving social support (4 items). All four scales had few missing items and adequate internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha > 0.70). All scores were associated with self-reported general health, and with visits to mental health specialists. Scores of self-esteem and mastery were also associated with physician visits (inversely), and confidence in finishing studies and finding a job. Scores of affective and confident social support correlated with the intensity of social activities and the number of people the respondent could count on.Conclusions The abbreviated scales retained adequate psychometric properties and may be usefully applied in health research among similar French-speaking populations.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
All four scales for self-esteem, affective social and confident/problem-solving social support have been found to demonstrate good internal and construct validity.
“All four scales have been found to demonstrate good internal and construct validity [86].”
Cites
Society and the Adolescent Self-Image
Rosenberg, M. (1965) · doi:10.1515/9781400876136 · Cited by 30,126 · see citing works
WARE, J. E., KOSINSKI, M., & KELLER, S. D. (1996) · Medical Care · doi:10.1097/00005650-199603000-00003 · Cited by 17,392 · see citing works
Pearlin, L. I., & Schooler, C. (1978) · Journal of Health and Social Behavior · doi:10.2307/2136319 · Cited by 7,791 · see citing works
Stress, Coping, and Social Support Processes: Where Are We? What Next?
Thoits, P. A. (1995) · Journal of Health and Social Behavior · doi:10.2307/2626957 · Cited by 3,496 · see citing works
Cross-Validation of Item Selection and Scoring for the SF-12 Health Survey in Nine Countries
Gandek, B., Ware, J. E., Aaronson, N. K., Apolone, G., Bjorner, J. B., Brazier, J. E., Bullinger, M., Kaasa, S., Leplege, A., Prieto, L., et al. (1998) · Journal of Clinical Epidemiology · doi:10.1016/s0895-4356(98)00109-7 · Cited by 2,907 · see citing works
Social ties and health: The benefits of social integration
Seeman, T. E. (1996) · Annals of Epidemiology · doi:10.1016/s1047-2797(96)00095-6 · Cited by 1,137 · see citing works
Depression and Academic Impairment in College Students
Heiligenstein, E. L., Guenther, G., Hsu, K., & Herman, K. (1996) · Journal of American College Health · doi:10.1080/07448481.1996.9936863 · Cited by 154 · see citing works
Life stress, social support and psychological distress in late adolescence: a longitudinal study
Ystgaard, M., Tambs, K., & Dalgard, O. S. (1999) · Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology · doi:10.1007/s001270050106 · Cited by 98 · see citing works
Coping with multiple stressors in the environment.
Lepore, S. J., & Evans, G. W. (1996) · Cited by 97 · see citing works
Stress, social support, coping, and adjustment.
Medalie, J. H. (1985) · PubMed · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Bovier, P. A., Chamot, E., & Perneger, T. V. (2004) · Quality of Life Research · doi:10.1023/b:qure.0000015288.43768.e4 · Cited by 311 · see citing works
Self-citationHealth and happiness in young Swiss adults
Perneger, T., Hudelson, P. M., & BOVIER, P. A. (2004) · Quality of Life Research · doi:10.1023/b:qure.0000015314.97546.60 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
Self-citationWitlox, M., Kraaij, V., Garnefski, N., de Waal, M. W. M., Smit, F., Hoencamp, E., Gussekloo, J., Bohlmeijer, E. T., & Spinhoven, P. (2018) · Trials · doi:10.1186/s13063-018-2731-3 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Aardoom, J. J., Dingemans, A. E., Spinhoven, P., Roijen, L. H.-V., & Van Furth, E. F. (2013) · Trials · doi:10.1186/1745-6215-14-340 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Food Choices under Stress: Considering Internet Usage and Social SupportPreprint
Drescher, L. S., & Hasselbach, J. L. (2014) · RePEc: Research Papers in Economics · doi:10.22004/ag.econ.166097 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
de Stadelhofen, F. M., Plancherel, A.-C., Berthoud, S., & Michel, L. (2003) · Sozial- und Präventivmedizin · doi:10.1007/s00038-003-1116-9 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Spinhoven, P., Kraaij, V., Garnefski, N., & Witlox, M. (2025) · Psychological Reports · doi:10.1177/00332941251399176
- Authors
- Bovier, P. A., Chamot, E., & Perneger, T. V.
- Affiliations
- University Hospital of Geneva (CH)
- University of Geneva (CH)
- ORCID
- Perneger, Thomas V.
- Venue
- Sozial- und Präventivmedizin¶Social and Preventive Medicine¶Médecine social et préventive
- Published
- 2002-11
- Volume
- 47
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 298-306
- ISSN
- 0303-8408 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2077134989
- Cited by
- 7
- References
- 10
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 1.64
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Sozial- und Präventivmedizin (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
- Social Sciences › Education › Health Education and Validation
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health, psychology, and well-being
- Keywords
- social support, psychological resources, self-esteem, mastery, French-speaking adults, scale shortening, psychometric validation, university students, health status, social activity
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Age Factors, Data Interpretation, Statistical, Female, Health Status, Humans, Language, Male, Mental Health, Middle Aged, Psychometrics, Surveys and Questionnaires, Research, Self Concept, Sex Factors, Social Support, Students, Switzerland, Marital Status
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
