People in your life. Development of a social support measure for predicting psychotherapy outcome

A scale was developed to assess psychiatric patients' perceptions of the quality and quantity of supportive relationships. The measure's psychometric properties were assessed in an initial study in which 500 subjects (divided between psychiatric patients and nonpatients) completed the 23-item scale. The results showed good subscale alpha coefficients, test-retest reliability, and face and construct validity. Differences in patients' and nonpatients' perceptions of social support were examined. The influence of demographic factors on both groups' responses to the support measure were assessed. In a second study, the support scale's concurrent and predictive validity were tested. Forty-two patients treated in brief, dynamic psychotherapy completed the scale pre- and posttreatment. Patients' perceptions of supportive relationships pretreatment were associated with pretreatment self-report ratings of symptoms and social adjustment and posttreatment changes in social adjustment. Also, posttreatment responses on the support measures were significantly more positive than were pretreatment perceptions of the quantity and quality of social support.