Measures - 10 questions:
(1) family networks: 3 questions
(2) friends networks: 3 questions
(3) confidant relationships: 2 questions
(4) helping others: 1 two part question
(5) living arrangements: 1 question
Responses range from 0 (poor) to 5 (good).
where:
• In-laws are considered as relatives.
• Examples of helping others: shopping, cooking dinner, doing repairs, cleaning house, providing child care, etc.?
• For item 9, I interpret the first part as referring to one person, while the second part might apply to more than one person.
total score =
= SUM(points for all 10 questions)
Interpretation:
• minimum score: 0
• maximum score: 50
• The higher the score, the greater the level of social support.
• A score < 20 indicates a person who may have an extremely limited social network.
|
Score
|
Interpretation
|
|
< 20
|
isolated
|
|
21 – 25
|
high risk for isolation
|
|
26 – 30
|
moderate risk for isolation
|
|
>= 31
|
low risk for isolation
|
from Rubinstein et al
Performance:
• The scores for each item are anchored between 0 and 5 in order to allow for equal weighting of the 10 parameters.
• The score has been shown to have an adequate internal consistency.
• The score correlates significantly with selected health measures.
