Resilience and Social Support-Giving Scales: Conceptual and Empirical Validation

Louise Hawkley, Kristin Wroblewski, Kathleen A Cagney, Linda J Waite and Merril Silverstein

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2021, vol. 76, issue Supplement_3, S238-S250

Abstract: ObjectivesThis report introduces National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) data users to 2 new measures—one that assesses older adults’ resilience, defined as personal attributes that indicate an adaptive reserve that can be drawn on during adversity, and a second that expands on existing measures of social support received from others to also assess social support given to close others.MethodData from 4,604 NSHAP respondents born 1920–1965 were used to conduct psychometric analyses and validation of our measures of resilience and social support-giving.ResultsScale reliabilities were acceptable for the 4-item resilience scale, and the 2-item scales for family support-giving and friend support-giving. The 2 spousal support-giving items did not cohere well as a single scale. The resilience scale exhibited significant correlations with criterion validation variables, even after adjusting for correlated personality traits. The support-giving scales, and the spousal support-giving items, also exhibited significant correlations with criteria, and with the resilience scale, even after adjusting for social support receipt. Scale means exhibited demographic differences.DiscussionThe resilience and social support-giving measures have acceptable psychometric characteristics (with the exception of spousal support-giving), convergent validity, and predictive utility net of related variables. NSHAP data users are offered several suggestions (key points) in the use of these measures in future research.

Keywords: Mental health; Personality; Physical health; Recovery; Stress (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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The Journals of Gerontology: Series B is currently edited by Psychological Sciences - S. Duke Han, PhD and Social Sciences - Jessica A Kelley, PhD, FGSA

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