The Social Support Appraisals Scale: construct validation for psychiatric inpatients.

The concept of social support and its relationship to physical health and psychological well-being has been well documented. However, little empirical research has been conducted with clinical populations, and no measure of perceived social support reportedly has been validated on psychiatric inpatients. A psychometric investigation of the Social Support Appraisals Scale, a subjective measure of social support, was undertaken with psychiatric inpatients. Good reliability and appropriate subscale intercorrelation were indicated by the data. Evidence of construct validity included significant associations with another social support appraisal measure, measures of other social support dimensions, and family-reported data. Strong psychometric properties of the instrument were demonstrated for hospitalized psychiatric patients. Clinical implications for prevention and treatment are discussed.