Medical Care. 26(7):709-723, JUL 1988

PMID: 3393031

Issn Print: 0025-7079

Publication Date: 1988/07/01


Share this on facebook   Share this on Twitter   Share this on LinkedIn   Email this article  



Print

The Duke–UNC Functional Social Support Questionnaire: Measurement of Social Support in Family Medicine Patients

W E Broadhead;Stephen Gehlbach;Frank De Gruy;Berton Kaplan;

+ Author Information


    loading  Checking for direct PDF access through Ovid

Abstract

A 14-item, self-administered, multidimensional, functional social support questionnaire was designed and evaluated on 401 patients attending a family medicine clinic. Patients were selected from randomized time-frame sampling blocks during regular office hours. The population was predominantly white, female, married, and under age 45. Eleven items remained after test-retest reliability was assessed over a 1- to 4-week follow-up period. Factor analysis and item remainder analysis reduced the remaining 11 items to a brief and easy-to-complete two-scale, eight-item functional social support instrument. Construct validity, concurrent validity, and discriminant validity are demonstrated for the two scales (confidant support—five items and affective support —three items). Factor analysis and correlations with other measures of social support suggest that the three remaining items (visits, instrumental support, and praise) are distinct entities that may need further study.

Related Topics

        loading  Loading Related Articles