Revision and Application of the Social Support Appraisal Scale

Objective: Exploring the reliability and validity of Chinese version of The Social Support Appraisal (SS-A) scale developed by Vaux et al (1986) and the characteristics of adolescent's social support.Methods:Using the scale, 515 junior and senior high school students were investigated.Results:(1) The SS-A scale had internal consistency of 0.91 for the scale and of 0.81-0.84 for three dimensions and a three-factor model was supported by the data (χ2/df5, NFI, NNFI and CFI above 0.95).(2) Based on the scale, adolescents perceived more support from family than that from friends or others (mean = 4.04, 3.66, 3.41, F=228.58,P0.001) and there were grade and gender differences in all three types of support (P0.001).Specially, female reported higher level of social support than male (P0.05).Conclusion:The Chinese version of SS-A scale is an effective and adaptive instrument.