The Social Support Apgar: Instrument development and testing

The Social Support Apgar (SSA), developed as a user-friendly tool for screening for perceptions of adequacy of social support among perinatal women, provides a profile of perceived satisfaction with five types of support from five different sources. The results of psychometric analyses from three separate studies involving the SSA are reported. Cronbach's alphas of .88 to .93 were obtained. A positive relationship between SSA scores and favorable pregnancy outcomes and a negative relationship between SSA scores and life stress provide some evidence for validity. The SSA's clinical utility is suggested by its ease of completion and the finding of no relationship between client and nurse ratings. These results suggest that the tool holds promise for use as a screening instrument with perinatal clients in busy clinical settings. (C) 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.