DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF A SCALE TO MEASURE SOCIAL SUPPORT AMONG INFORMAL CAREGIVERS OF CHILDREN WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY.
Keywords:
Cerebral Palsy, Social Support, Emotional/Informational, Financial/Moral, façade (Stigmatized) supportAbstract
Social support has long been regarded to mitigate distress and considerable research has been directed at its role in parents caring for a child with intellectual disabilities. Beyond the assessment of sources and quality of social support, this study included perceived cognitive assessment of these support received. We conducted a qualitative study to determine perception of the nature and type social support received. Themes were generated, and those related to sources, nature and assessment of social support were used in constructing a 9-item Cerebral Palsy Social Support Scale (CPSSS). A descriptive cross-sectional survey was then conducted among 150 mothers of children with Cerebral Palsy, aged 25-60, in a Clinical settings of Tertiary hospitals in South Western Nigeria to assess the reliability and validity of the scale. Construct validity using exploratory factor analysis factored and Varimax rotated the scale into three dimensions (KMO = .61, X2 = 428.42, df = 36, p<.001) with items loading ranged from 0.68 to .98. Internal Construct validity shows that the three dimensions correlated with CPSSS overall scores. Two of the three subscales (Emotional/Informational support, Financial/Moral Support) were sufficiently related while façade (Stigmatized) support was non-correlate of other components Convergent validity was established between CPSSS and Multidimensional Perceived Social Scale (r = .45, p<.001). The overall CPSSS (α =.88) and its sub scales demonstrated meritorious reliabilities (Emotional/Informational support, α =.90, Financial/Moral Support, α =.72; façade (Stigmatized) support, α =.89). The brief Cerebral Palsy Social Support Scale was a reliable and valid means of assessing the nature of social support received by Cerebral Palsy caregiver in Nigeria.ÂReferences
REFERENCES
Adejuwon, G.A. & Ibeagha, P.N.(2005). Adolescent behavioural outcome: Scale development and validation in
Ibadan, Nigeria. Journal of Social Sciences. 10(2), 123-127.
Brehaut, C., Kohen, D. E., Raina, P., Walter, S. D., Russell, D. J., Swinton, M., O'Donnell, M., & Rosenbaum, P.
(2004). The health of primary caregivers of children with cerebral Palsy: How does it compare with that of
other Canadian caregivers. Pediatrics. 114 (2), 182-91.
Goffman, E. (1963). Stigma; notes on the management of spoiled identity. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall.
Gruetzner, H.M. (2001). Alzheimer’s: A caregiver’s Guide and Sourcebook. Wiley.
Hudson, A.L., Nyamathi, A., & Sweat, J. (2009) homeless youths’ interpersonal perspective of health care providers.
Issues in Mental Health Nursing. 29:1277-1289.
Mulvaney-Day, N.E., Alegria, M., & Sribney, W. (2007). Social cohesion, social support, and health among Latinos in
the United State. Social Science and Medicine. 64(2): 477-95.
Nielsen, A. (2009). Loneliness and Social support in Adolescent boys with Autism. Journal of Autism Development
Disorder. 40(2):218-26.
Nunnally, J.C. (1978). Psychometric theory (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Ozbay, F., Johnson, D.C., Dimoulas, E., Morgan, C.A. (2007). Social Support and resilience to stress: From
neurobiology to clinical practice. Psychiatry. 4(5): 35-40.
Sarafino, E.P (2002). Health Psychology: Biopsychosocial interactions (4th ed.). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons,
Schopler, E., & Mesibor, G.B. (Eds.). (1984). The effects of Autism on the family. New York: Plenum.
Schopler, E., & Mesibov, G.B. (1984). Autism in adolescents and adults. New York: Plenum.
Taylor, S.E. (2011). Social support: A review. In H.S. Friedman (Ed.), Oxford Handbook of Health Psychology. New
York.
Thompson, R.A. (2015). Social support and child protection: Lessons learned and learning. Child Abuse & Neglect.
(1), 19-29.
Turney, K., & Kao, G. (2009). Assessing the private safety net: Social support among minority immigrant. The
Sociological Quarterly. 50(4): 666-692.
Thompson, A., Fan, M.Y., Unutzer, J., & Katon, W. (2008). One extra month of depression: The effects of caregiving on depression outcomes in the impact trial. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 23(5):511-516.
Zimet, G.D., Dahlem, N.W., Zimet, S.G., Farley, G.K.(1988) The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. Journal of personality assessment, 52(1). 30-41.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright is owned by the journal.
