The problem of confounding social support and depressive symptoms: A brief report on a college sample

The problem of confounding social support and depressive symptoms was addressed by examining the convergent and discriminant validity of interview and questionnaire measures of social support and depression using the multitrait-multimethod matrix approach. Participants were 40 late-adolescent colleg...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of community psychology 1989-02, Vol.17 (1), p.57-66
Main Authors: Slavin, Lesley A., Compas, Bruce E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Depression - diagnosis
Depression - psychology
Female
Humans
Male
Mental depression
Personal relationships
Personality Inventory
Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
Psychology
Psychometrics
Social Environment
Social research
Social Support
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Summary:The problem of confounding social support and depressive symptoms was addressed by examining the convergent and discriminant validity of interview and questionnaire measures of social support and depression using the multitrait-multimethod matrix approach. Participants were 40 late-adolescent college students with half the sample selected on the basis of mild to moderate scores on self-reported depressive symptoms. Measures of depression displayed excellent convergent and discriminant validity, and measures of objective features of social networks were found to have moderate convergent and discriminant validity. However, the subjective measures of satisfaction with social support used were found to have neither adequate convergent nor discriminant validity. Implications for the conceptualization and assessment of social support are highlighted.
ISSN:0091-0562
1573-2770
DOI:10.1007/BF00931202