Assessing Social Support in Elementary School Children: The Survey of Children's Social Support

We devised a self-report Survey of Children's Social Support (SOCSS) to assess three potential aspects of social support in elementary school age children: the frequency of supportive behaviors available from the child's support network (Scale of Available Behaviors, or SAB); the child's subjective appraisals of family, teacher, and peer support (APP); and the size of the child's social support network (NET). With a sample of 361 third through fifth graders, test-retest and internal consistency reliabilities were acceptable. Moderate correlations existed between SAB and APP. However, neither of these two measures was related to NET. In addition, significant relations between the SOCSS and other indices of social support and self-esteem provided evidence for the validity of the SOCSS.