Measuring perceived social support: Development of the child and adolescent social support scale (CASSS)

The measurement of students’ social support has become a popular topic in education and psychology, yet measurement tools in this area are limited. In this study, we use a large, representative sample to conduct confirmatory factor, reliability, and correlational analyses of scores on the Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale (CASSS; Malecki, Demaray, Elliott, & Nolten, 1999). These analyses revealed evidence of reliability, a four-factor structure (Parent, Teacher, Classmate, and Close Friend subscales), and construct validity. The results of this study indicate that the CASSS covaries as predicted with the clinically important constructs of self-concept, social skills, and behavioral indicators. There is evidence that the CASSS can be used to understand children and adolescents’ perceived social support. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. With recent tragic events in several of the schools in the United States, the general public and news media have been placing a great emphasis on the support that our students are perceiving in schools from adults and peers. Are they supported or rejected by peers? Do adults notice when students are struggling socially or academically in school? These are questions that school personnel and support staff may find themselves asking, yet these staff are not often well-equipped with the tools needed to answer these questions. Furthermore, social support plays an important role in the lives of children, and has been linked to many positive psychological and physical outcomes (East, Hess, & Lerner, 1987; Forman, 1988; Kloomok & Cosden, 1994; Shumaker & Brownell, 1984; Uchino, Cacioppo, & Kiecolt-Glaser, 1996; Wenz-Gross & Siperstein, 1997). This study can help put appropriate measurement tools in the hands of school psychologists and educators to help answer important questions about children’s and adolescents’ perceptions of social support. Specifically, we present a new measure of social support titled the “Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale” (CASSS; Malecki, Demaray, Elliott, & Nolten, 1999). Further investigations of this psychosocial construct may advance our understanding of the role of social support in the lives of children and adolescents and lead to the development of effective psychological interventions for children. A variety of definitions of social support have been proposed. Cobb’s (1976) classic definition consisted of three components of social support: feeling loved, feeling valued or esteemed, and belonging to a social network. Tardy (1985) proposed a model that defined the important aspects of social support. The CASSS is based on Tardy’s model of social support. Tardy’s model addressed five dimensions in the conceptualization of social support: direction, disposition, description/evaluation, content, and network. In this model, direction refers to whether social support is being given or received. There are two dimensions to disposition: availability (what support someone has access to) or enacted (what support someone has utilized). Description / evaluation refers to whether an evaluation of an individual’s social support or simply a description This work is coauthored; order of authorship is random. We would like to acknowledge Stephen N. Elliott, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Donna L. Powless, Wisconsin, and Sara Ousdigian, Minnesota for their contributions to this research. We would also like to thank Christopher Parker, Northern Illinois University, for sharing his statistical expertise with us for some of the analyses.