PSYCHOMETRIC EVALUATION OF THE MULTIDIMENSIONAL SCALE OF PERCEIVED SOCIAL SUPPORT (MSPSS) AMONG MALAYSIAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51200/sapj.v14i1.7931Keywords:
Reliability, Validity, Item Analysis, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS)Abstract
Social support is crucial in order to help students cope and analyse their mental health and overall well-being. Students' mental health may be impacted by stress from their personal lives as well as their studies, which may lead to suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts. The objective of this study is to evaluate the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) among Malaysian university students in terms of internal consistency, item-total correlation method and convergent, concurrent validity. The sample consisted of 268 university students from public and private universities around Malaysia. The MSPSS is an instrument to determine the degree of perceived social support from three sources: significant others, family, and friends. Cronbach's alpha of the three dimensions of MSPSS ranges from 0.898 to 0.916, which indicates a high reliability for the instrument. Item analysis using the item-total correlation method also shows that the items for the three distinct MSPSS dimensions are related to one another and measure the same construct. Convergent validity also shows that there was a significant correlation between the three dimensions, as evidenced by the correlation coefficient between them, which ranged from 0.477 to 0.528 with p < .001. On the other hand, concurrent validity scores demonstrate that the YSAS and ATTS scores have a negative and insignificant relationship with all three of the MSPSS dimensions. MSPSS is a reliable instrument that is suitable to assess the perceived social support for university students in Malaysia. However, the concurrent validity of this instrument required further research.
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