The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS-SK): Validation Study of the Slovak Version for Adolescents

The goal of the paper is to verify the factor structure of the MSPSS questionnaire, which measures social support sources within the original three-factor structure, verify its psychometric properties, and adjust it to Slovak conditions including the correct language adaptation. MSPSS is one of the most widely used methodologies measuring an individual’s perception of social support from three sources: family, friends and a significant other. The empirical verification was performed on a research file of adolescent high school students (n = 249). The questionnaires were administered to secondary school students who were randomly drawn from a list of all the secondary schools in the KoĹĄice and PreĹĄov regions of Slovakia with the consent of the management of the secondary school concerned. The factor analysis confirmed the original model with three subscales: significant other, family, friends. The study also sufficiently confirmed the psychometric properties (reliability and concurrent validity) of the Slovak version of the research instrument as well as its reliability for use in adolescents as a target group, therefore it can be concluded that MSPSS-SK can be used by helping professionals (such as teachers, school psychologists, or school social workers) to measure the social support of high school students.