Development of Chinese Military Personnel Social Support Scale and tests for its reliability and validity
- Author:
Kai-Hong TANG
1
Author Information
1. Department of Mental Health, Clinical Medicine College, Jiangsu University
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
Military personnel;
Reproducibility of results;
Social support
- From:
Medical Journal of Chinese People's Liberation Army
2013;38(1):69-72
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
Objective To develop Chinese Military Personnel Social Support Scale and verify its reliability and validity. Methods The Chinese Military Personnel Social Support Scale was initiated, organized and compiled based upon open-ended questionnaire survey done in a systematic manner, and previous researches were taken as references. A total of 630 military personnel were chosen by random cluster sampling and tested with the Scale, among them 50 were tested with Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS) and Chinese Military Psychosomatic Health Scale (CMPHS) simultaneously, and the test was done solely a second time with CMPHS 2 weeks later. The reliability and validity were assessed and verified by exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and correlation analysis. Results The Chinese Military Personnel Social Support Scale comprised three factors, namely subjective support, objective support and utility of social support. Eighteen items were left in official scale after amendment by factor analysis, and one lying subscale was added. The correlation coefficients between the public factors ranged from 0.477 to 0.589 (P<0.01), and the correlation coefficients between factors and total scale ranged from 0.721 to 0.823 (P<0.01). The test-retest correlation coefficients of total scale and subscales ranged from 0.622 to 0.803 (P<0.01), the Cronbach α coefficients ranged from 0.624 to 0.874, and the split-half correlation coefficients ranged from 0.551 to 0.828. Significant correlation existed between this Scale and two criterion scales, namely SSRS and CMPHS. Conclusion α It is verified that the Chinese Military Personnel Social Support Scale has excellent reliability and validity, and complying with psychometric standards, it may be used to evaluate the social support level of Chinese military personnel.
