The development of a measure of social support: the Significant Others (SOS) Scale.

A description is presented of the development of a new scale to measure social support which is called the Significant Others (SOS) Scale. The scale measures different functional resources of social support that may be provided by a number of significant role relationships within an individual's social network. Preliminary results from a sample of mature students show that the scale has good six-month test-retest reliability, and significantly distinguishes between depressed and non-depressed respondents. Details of a short form of the scale currently being developed are also presented.