THE RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF MULTIDIMENSIONAL SCALE OF PERCEIVED SOCIAL SUPPORT (MSPSS) AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN MALAYSIA

Social support is crucial 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. This study evaluates the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) by Zimet et al. (1988) among Malaysian university students regarding internal consistency, item-total correlation method, and convergent, concurrent validity. The sample comprised 268 university students from public and private universities around Malaysia. The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) by Zimet et al. (1988) 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 and measure the same construct. Convergent validity also shows a significant correlation between the three dimensions, as evidenced by their correlation coefficient, 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 significant relationship with all three of the MSPSS dimensions. MSPSS is a reliable instrument that is suitable for assessing the perceived social support for university students in Malaysia. However, the concurrent validity of this instrument required further research.