Social Support Among Young Adults: Latent-Variable Models of Quantity and Satisfaction Within Six Life Areas

Although a variety of social support measures have been developed, their conceptual distinctiveness and similarity have not been addressed in an empirical manner. This study presents a latent-variable approach to separate several sources and types of support and to determine the validity of a social support battery administered to a group of 739 young adults. Three theoretically distinct components of social support were considered: Type of support, source of support, and functional area of support. Type of support was reflected by amount (quantity) and satisfaction (quality); sources of support included family, friends, and organizations; and functional areas considered were drug use, finances, health, intimate relationships, psychological or emotional distress, and work or employment. A total of 36 (=2*3*6) social support items were developed by fully crossing the combinations among the components. Latent-variable models verified a clear hypothesized structure of traits, indicating that these social support items very adequately reflected their underlying constructs. A second-order latent factor captured the association among the six functional area factors of social support. This suggests that the areas considered in assessing social support may generalize, and reflect a life experience that is broadly supported or not supported by important others in one's social network.