top of page

The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) is a brief research tool designed to measure perceptions of support from 3 sources: Family, Friends, and a Significant Other.  The scale is comprised of a total of 12 items, with 4 items for each subscale.  My colleagues, Nancy Dahlem, Sara Zimet, Gordon Farley, and I (Gregory Zimet) first published on the MSPSS in the Journal of Personality Assessment in 1988.

 

Across many studies, the MSPSS has been shown to have good internal and test-retest reliability, good validity, and a fairly stable factorial structure.  It has been translated into many languages, including (but not limited to) Urdu, Hebrew, Tamil, Danish, Farsi (Persian), French, Italian, Korean, Lithuanian, Hausa, Norwegian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Slovene, Malay, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, and Thai. For linguistically-validated translations, consider using TransPerfect.

 

The MSPSS is free to use. Please simply credit the following paper (and any others that are relevant), if you use the scale:

 

Zimet GD, Dahlem NW, Zimet SG, Farley GK. The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. Journal of Personality Assessment 1988;52:30-41.

bottom of page