The Construction and Validation of a Social Support Measure for Sojourners

Research on stress, coping, and cross-cultural adaptation has been frequently hampered by the use of inadequate and inappropriate measures of sojourner social support. An attempt is made here to develop an instrument that assesses social support in an acculturation context and integrates generic conceptualizations of the construct with the unique circumstances of a sojourning population. The construction and validation of the Index of Sojourner Social Support (ISSS) Scale were based on three studies. Study 1 describes the process of item generation; Study 2 deals with the development and validation of the ISSS; and Study 3 presents a preliminary cross-cultural validation of the instrument. A cross-validation procedure was used for the validation of both the internal and external structures of the ISSS. On the whole, multiple-groups covariance structure analyses showed the ISSS to possess a stable two-factor internal structure (socioemotional support and instrumental support) and a logical external structure of nomological relationships to received social support, locus of control, sense of mastery, interpersonal trust, depression, and social desirability.