Measuring Social Capital: Accounting for Nested Data and Subnetworks Within Schools

Social capital is a central concept in social science research, and it is measured in diverse ways. Few measurement approaches take the network structure of complex institutional settings into account. In this study, using data from a large-scale school-based randomized field trial, we develop several factor analytic models to test the validity and reliability of a new survey battery capturing multiple dimensions of social capital in such settings. We demonstrate that it is important to account for institutional and network structure in social capital measures, and we show how social capital can be operationalized as the shared variance between different relational characteristics in complex settings with multiple subnetworks.     

Validation of the Flourishing Scale and Scale of Positive and Negative Experience in Portugal

The Flourishing Scale (FS) and the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (SPANE) created by Diener et al. (Soc Indic Res 97:143–156, 2010) are instruments that assess psychological flourishing and feelings (positive and negative, and the difference between the two). In this study, the psychometric properties of both scales were explored by using two Portuguese samples (I: n = 734; II: n = 194). Reliability analysis and a multi-group confirmatory factorial analysis (MCFA) of both scales were performed. To examine the validity of FS and SPANE we analyzed their correlations with other well-being and happiness measures. Results showed that the Portuguese versions of both scales have good psychometric properties, and they also showed convergent validity. Results also demonstrated the unidimensional structure of the FS and a two-factor solution for the SPANE. The multi-group CFA of both scales evidenced an invariant structure. Both Portuguese versions of the scales behave consistently with the original and may be used in future studies of well-being.     

Social Capital in Association with Socioeconomic Variables in Iran

The objective of this study was to determine the various dimensions of social capital in Tehran and its association with socioeconomic variables. Two thousand, four hundred and eighty-four persons participated in the study through multi-stage stratified sampling in Tehran. The study questions were extracted from the World Bank integrated questionnaire. While respondents obtained over 50 % of the attainable scores in the ‘trust’, ‘cooperation’, ‘social cohesion’, and ‘political action’ dimensions, they obtained only 18.9 % of the attainable scores in the ‘networks’ dimension. The respondents in age groups older than 45 had higher trust scores than respondents in the 18–25 age group. Men had higher ‘network’ and ‘social cohesion’ scores than women (p ≤ 0.001). Respondents in the poorest wealth quintile had lower ‘networks’ and ‘social cohesion’ scores than the richest group and ‘political action’ scores higher than the richest group (p = 0.038). The lowest score in ‘Tehranians’ social capital was in the groups and networks dimension. Therefore designing effective interventions for such activities, particularly in women’s groups, is a priority.     

Psychometric Properties of the Medical Outcome Study Social Support Survey with a General Population Sample of Undergraduate Students

Among non-clinical populations, perceived social support is an important factor in health maintenance and well-being. Among measures that purport to assess perceived social support, the Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey (MOS-SSS) is based on a strong conceptual framework and has been subjected to a rigorous psychometric evaluation. Since no studies have investigated its psychometric properties with a young, non-clinical population, the purpose of this study is to investigate the psychometric properties (construct validity, internal consistency, and test–retest reliability) of an Italian version of the MOS-SSS with a non-clinical population sample. A convenience sample of 485 undergraduate students (73.0 % female; mean age = 21.81 ± 1.52) has been recruited. With regards to scale dimensionality, the best fit measurement model found support for the four subscales proposed by the original version: emotional and informational support, tangible support, positive social interactions, and affectionate support (χ ²/df = 4.49; CFI = .92; TLI = .91; RMSEA = .08). MOS-SSS subscales showed good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha for the subscales ranged from .848 to .939). Significant correlations were found with measures of psychological well-being (Ryff’s Scales of Psychological Well-Being) and depression (Beck-Depression Inventory-II). Test–retest stability was tested by examining a subsample (N = 225) over a 10-week period (correlation coefficients for the subscales ranged from .502 to .579). The findings suggest that MOS-SSS presents good psychometric characteristics with a young general population sample. Therefore, the MOS-SSS seems to be a psychometrically sound measure for the evaluation of perceived social support among young non-clinical populations.     

Loneliness and Life Satisfaction in Turkish Early Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Self Esteem and Social Support

This study aimed to measure whether self-esteem and social support are mediators in the relationship between loneliness and life satisfaction. The study includes early teenagers from the 6th, 7th and 8th grades aged between 11 and 15 (M = 13.31, SD = 1.09). The study group consisted of 431 secondary school students from large and medium sized cities in Turkey, of which 196 (44.5 %) were girls and 235 (54.5 %) were boys. The study examined students’ responses to life satisfaction, loneliness, self-esteem and social support scales. Data were separated into parcels of instruments within the framework of structural equation modeling. It was determined that both self-esteem and social support were partial mediators between loneliness and life satisfaction. These results are discussed within the scope of the literature.     

Measuring Social Isolation in Older Adults: Development and Initial Validation of the Friendship Scale

Although there are many excellent published scales measuring social isolation, there is need for a short, user-friendly, stand alone scale measuring felt social isolation with good psychometric properties. This study reports the development and preliminary validation of a short, user-friendly scale, the Friendship Scale. The six items measure six of the seven important dimensions that contribute to social isolation and its opposite, social connection. The psychometric properties suggest that it has excellent internal structures as assessed by structural equation modelling (CFI = 0.99, RMSEA = 0.02), that it possesses reliability (Cronbach α = 0.83) and discrimination when assessed against two other short social relationship scales. Tests of concurrent discriminant validity suggest it is sensitive to the known correlates of social isolation. Although further work is needed to validate it in other populations, the results of this study suggest researchers may find the Friendship Scale particularly useful in epidemiology, population surveys or in health-related quality of life evaluation studies where a parsimonious measure of felt social support or social isolation is needed.     

Confirmatory Factor Analysis of Scales Measuring Trust,and Control-Self-efficacy of Young Iranian Women

This study is among the first to assess Trust and Control-Self-efficacy scales as measures of cognitive social capital in transitional societies such as Iran. 391 Iranian young women aged between 18 and 35 years (M 27.3, SD 4.8) were recruited at ten sites in the city of Shiraz by cluster convenience sampling to participate in this cross-sectional study. The measures used included “Trust” and “Control-Self-efficacy” scales adapted from the British General Household Survey social capital survey. Confirmatory factor analysis with Structural Equation Modelling was used to assess the model adequacy. In addition, reliability and validity of the model was measured. After assessing all possible models to yield the best fit for the data, the “Trust” scale model represents a change of structure from three subscales to four subscales which provided a best fit with the data (χ² = 2.231, RMSEA = 0.056). While for “Control-Self-efficacy” scale with three subscales, five items were deleted in order to have a fit model (χ² = 2.128, RMSEA = 0.054). As a result, the collective evidence suggested that the instrument includes relevant items for its target population and can be a reliable and valid measure for the population of interest.

     

Cross-Cultural Adaptation,Validity and Reliability of the Escala Pessoal de Resultados

The present article aims to examine the validity and reliability of the Portuguese version of Personal Outcomes Scale the Escala Pessoal de Resultados (EPR). This scale represents an instrument to measure the quality of life (QOL) in people with intellectual disabilities (ID). The study was initiated with the application of international guidelines in cross-cultural adaptation, culminating with an evaluation of 10 experts for the quantitative evidence of the content validity. All EPR’s items were considered relevant and there was a moderated agreement (k > .40) among the experts in the calculation of Cohen’s kappa, finding some coefficients’ that are considered as an excellent agreement (k > .75). In test field, our sample comprised 335 adults with ID on level of intermittent and limited support needs, even as the respective proxies. The scale showed an excellent internal consistency (α = .94). EPR’s construct validity indexes are also reported and discussed. The study provides EPR as a valid instrument for assess the QOL in ID field, and the scale seems to be useful for improvement of Portuguese rehabilitation practices and services.     

Development and Validation of the Older Patient Assessment of Chronic Illness Care (O-PACIC) Scale After Hospitalization

Objectives of this study were to develop and validate an instrument to assess older patients’ experiences with integrated care delivery after hospitalization. Our study was conducted among older individuals (≥65) who had recently been discharged from a hospital. At T1, 3 months after hospital admission, 296/457 patients (65 % response) were interviewed in their homes. At T2 12 months after hospital admission, 242/436 patients (56 % response) were interviewed. Point of departure for the development of the scale was the 20-item Patient Assessment of Chronic Illness Care (PACIC), which is proven to be a valid measure to assess chronically-ill patients’ assessment of integrated primary care delivery. We tested both the PACIC and new instrument by means of structural equation modeling, and examined its validity and reliability. After eliminating 10 items of the PACIC, the confirmatory factor analyses revealed good indices of fit with the 10-item Older Patient Assessment of Chronic Illness Care (O-PACIC) Scale. To estimate construct validity of the instrument, we looked at correlations between PACIC and O-PACIC scores and the satisfaction with stroke care home subscale (SASC-Home) questionnaire. Both the PACIC and O-PACIC significantly correlated with SASC-Home subscale (at p ≤ 0.001), which indicated validity. This study demonstrated that O-PACIC is a feasible, reliable and valid tool, with strong psychometric properties. We conclude that the O-PACIC is a promising instrument to evaluate integrated care delivery after hospitalization among older patients.     

Assessing Adjustment to Aging: A Validation Study for the Adjustment to Aging Scale (AtAS)

Adjustment to aging (AtA) is a multifactor adjustment process with implications on aging well among older adults. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a scale to assess the factors that older adults recognized as indicators of their AtA, with a cross-national comparative perspective towards aging well. Convenience sampling was used to gather questionnaire data, including demographics and the proposed scale. Complete data was available for 1,291 older community-dwelling adults, aged between 75 and 102 years (M = 83.9; SD = 6.68), who represented four different nationalities. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed for dimension reduction and exploration of the factorial structure. Data gathered with the 22-items AtA five-factor scale showed overall good psychometric properties (in terms of distributional properties, statistical significant factor weights, factorial, convergent, discriminant criterion and external-related validities, as well as reliability). Five factors were selected for the Adjustment to Aging Scale: (a) sense of purpose and ambitions (b) zest and spirituality; (c) body and health; (d) aging in place and stability; and (e) social support. We present a 22-item scale with five factors for AtA estimation in a cross-national elderly population which produced valid and reliable data for elder persons from four different nationalities. Results showed that this scale is an adequate cross-cultural instrument for research, clinical practice and program development in the health care context. These may benefit from clearly understanding AtA as an important component for reducing health disparities and for aging well, across nationalities.     

Quality of Life in College Students with and without Social Phobia

Prior studies demonstrating quality of life impairment in phobia and anxiety disorders have relied upon epidemiological samples or clinical data. Using the same quality of life scale, the Short Form 36-item Health Survey (SF-36), in Iranian college students allowed us to study the impact of social phobia (SP) on quality of life among the college students. This report summarizes findings from a cross sectional study on Iranian students with social phobia studying at Shahed University. Quality of life was measured using the Short Form 36-item Health Survey (SF-36) which is a widely used and valid questionnaire to measure quality of life in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. Three standard instruments were used to measure social phobia severity, namely Social Phobia Inventory, Social Interaction Anxiety Scale, and Brief version of the Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale. The sample consisted of 202 college students, 72 with SP and 130 without SP. The main finding of this study was that students with social phobia reported significantly lower quality of life, particularly in general health (P = 0.02), vitality (P < 0.0001), social functioning (P < 0.0001), role functioning—emotional (P < 0.0001), and Mental health (P = 0.001) dimensions. Standardized summed scores for mental health components of the SF-36 showed that 36.2% of all the s with SP were severely impaired while 16.0% of the students in control croup were severely impaired. Findings demonstrated that Iranian socially anxious college students reported extensive functional disability, and lower well-being compared to those without SP. These findings should encourage education officers to implement systematic efforts to prevent and treat social anxiety among students.     

The initial development of the Pregnancy-related Anxiety Scale

Problem/background

Pregnancy-related anxiety is a distinct anxiety characterised by pregnancy-specific concerns. This anxiety is consistently associated with adverse birth outcomes, and obstetric and paediatric risk factors, associations generally not seen with other anxieties. The need exists for a psychometrically sound scale for this anxiety type. This study, therefore, reports on the initial development of the Pregnancy-related Anxiety Scale.

Development and Validation of the Transgender Inclusive Behavior Scale (TIBS)

Transgender-inclusive behaviors are actions and communication supporting transgender individuals. Examples include using language not reinforcing the gender binary, asking for and using correct pronouns, creation of spaces that welcome members of the transgender community, and acknowledging cisgender (non-transgender) privilege. A survey was developed measuring this behavior in individuals to examine the impact of transgender-inclusive behavior and the potential effect of interventions on promoting inclusive behavior. Data were collected utilizing an online survey (N = 1,051). The sample was split in half to run two sets of cases in a principal components analysis. Analysis of the full sample showed Cronbach’s alpha to be .93 (n = 918). Findings suggest that the Transgender Inclusive Behavior Scale (TIBS) may be a useful instrument for identifying behaviors related to being inclusive of transgender individuals, groups, and communities. It may also be used to measure behavior change before and after transgender-specific educational and behavioral interventions.     

Psychometric Evaluation of a Serbian Version of the Subjective Happiness Scale

The main aim of this research was to examine the psychometric properties of the Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS; Lyubomirsky and Lepper in Soc Indic Res 46:137–155, 1999) in a sample of young adults in Serbia (N = 605, mean age = 21.99). The SHS demonstrated adequate internal consistency reliability and homogeneity. Exploratory and Confirmatory factor analyses supported the unidimensional structure of the SHS. The results provided support for the convergent validity of the SHS, by significant correlations with measures of subjective well-being (life satisfaction, positive and negative affect, emotional distress), positive expectations (optimism and self-efficacy), meaning in life and personality traits (extraversion and neuroticism). As compared to the Satisfaction with Life Scale, the SHS showed significantly higher correlations with measures of emotional states and personality traits. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that the SHS had incremental validity over and above subjective well-being and personality traits in predicting emotional distress and meaning in life.     

Explaining Unequal Levels of Social Capital in Tehran

Social capital may act as an asset to serve people in various situations. However, people do not equally enjoy the same level of social capital and there is inequality in distribution of this asset in societies. There is few research within the wider literature exploring the determinants of inequality in social capital. This study measured and decomposed inequality in the distribution of social capital in Tehran using a concentration index approach. Data was gathered through a survey in 2008, the sample included 2484 of over 18-year old residents. Social Capital Integrated Questionnaire was used to measure social capital status, its dimensions (networking, trust, and cooperation) and outcomes (cohesion and political action). Most of social capital dimensions/outcomes were unequally distributed in Tehran, favouring the rich. However, in terms of political action, the poor were more politically active than the rich in Tehran. Decomposition showed that economic status and education had the highest contributions to the observed inequalities. In efforts to move towards a more just society, these findings can inform future policies in Iran to tackle the observed inequalities in social capital.     

Effects of Social Networks on Health from a Stress Theoretical Perspective

This paper focuses on the relevance of quantitative and qualitative aspects of social networks in a health context. The study combined a stress theoretical perspective with theories of social support and social capital in order to investigate the mechanisms behind the association of social network size and self-rated health. The main research question in the study is whether social integration affects health by changing stressor appraisal (perceived stressor intensity or anticipated stressor burden). The study used a survey of an Austrian student sample (n = 246) to measure two models of hypothetical exposure to a potentially stressful event. The findings indicate that individuals with larger trust and support networks consider potential stressors to be less threatening, which leads to a reduced level of stress symptoms and a better subjective health condition. The influence of network size on stressor appraisal is fully mediated by the perceived social embeddedness that these ties induce.     

Validity and Reliability of Subjective Social Indicators: The effect of different measures of association

In an international research project, a meta analysis of multitrait-multimethod matrices was used to evaluate the effects of characteristics of survey measurement instruments on the quality of survey data. The analyses in this project were done on the basis of polychoric/polyserial correlations. The result of such a study can be used to correct for measurement errors if the correlation in the substantive study is also a polychoric/polyserial correlation. It is, however, doubtful if these quality estimates of survey measurement instruments are appropriate for studies based on the most frequently used Pearson correlations. In this paper, the general approach will be discussed first. After that, the results with respect to validity and reliability estimates, obtained using two different measures of association, will be compared: the polychoric/polyserial correlations and the Pearson correlations. This study suggests that the differences between estimates of the reliability for scales with different numbers of categories are quite large, while all other effects remain approximately the same. The reasons for the differences will also be given. All the results are based on experiments containing questions with respect to satisfaction with life and aspects of life. Thus the study provides estimates of validity and reliability on measures of satisfaction with life and aspects of life which can be used in practice for the prediction and optimization of data quality and for correction of the data with regard to measurement error.     

A Comparative Analysis of the Validity of US State- and County-Level Social Capital Measures and Their Associations with Population Health

The goals of this study were to validate a number of available collective social capital measures at the US state and county levels, and to examine the relative extent to which these social capital measures are associated with population health outcomes. Measures of social capital at the US state level included aggregate indices based on the Annenberg National Health Communication Survey and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), Petris Social Capital Index (PSCI), Putnam’s index, and Kim et al.’s scales. County-level measures consisted of PSCI, Rupasingha et al.’s social capital index, and a BRFSS-derived measure. These measures, except for the PSCI, showed evidence of acceptable validity. Moreover, we observed differences across the social capital measures in their associations with population health outcomes. The implications of the findings for future research in this area were discussed.     

Measuring Sexual Prejudice Against Gay Men and Lesbian Women: Development of the Sexual Prejudice Scale (SPS)

The presence of bias against gay men and lesbian women remains an ongoing issue, and accurate measurement is essential to targeted intervention. A validation study of a new instrument, the Sexual Prejudice Scale, is reported. Students (N = 851) from 4 different universities participated in this study. An exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were conducted, and results of these analyses indicated a 3-factor solution (affective – valuation, stereotyping, and social equality beliefs) for each of the sex-specific scales. Evidence of validity and the results of the reliability analysis are reported. Implications for future research are discussed.