Measuring staff support in services for people with intellectual disability: the Staff Support and Satisfaction...

Social support is an important determinant of well-being, including the stress experienced within the work setting. The present paper reports on the development of the Staff Support and Satisfaction Questionnaire (3SQ), from a previously published measure: the Staff Support Questionnaire. The 3SQ was piloted with 21 health professionals and examined for evidence of test-retest reliability with 24 staff. Data on internal reliability were collected on three occasions from a total sample of 177 staff. The validity of the 3SQ was examined in four studies with a total of 238 staff by testing it against validated measures of psychological well-being. The data showed that the total scale had a high level of test--retest reliability (rs=0.82, P < 0.001) and consistently high internal reliability. Three out of the four validity studies showed statistically significant inverse relationships between the total scale and measures of psychological well-being. The weakest link was the 'Supportive People' subscale. The reliability and validity studies suggest that the psychometric properties of the 3SQ are generally robust, except for the 'Supportive People' subscale, which should be interpreted with caution.