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Free test · MSPSS

Perceived social support test (MSPSS)

This scale shows how much support you feel you can count on from three sources: a significant other in your life, your family and your friends. You get an average for each source and an overall average, so you can see where support feels solid and where it feels thin.

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What it measures

The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) by Zimet and colleagues (1988) has 12 statements rated from 1 to 7. Four statements each cover a significant other, family and friends. Each score is the average of its statements, and the overall score is the average of all 12. It measures how supported you feel, not how many people you know.

This is not a diagnosis

The scale describes how supported you feel right now. It diagnoses nothing, and the author notes that there are no population norms: the same number can be comfortable for one person and painful for another.

What happens to your answers

Your score is calculated right in your browser. Your answers reach our server only if you ask for your result by email: we write the email and do not keep them.

What do low, moderate and high support mean?

They follow the author's guide to the response labels: an average of 1 to 2.9 is low support, 3 to 5 moderate and 5.1 to 7 high. These are rough bands, not norms or clinical cutoffs.

Do the three sources have to be equal?

No. Many people feel well supported by friends and little by family, or the other way round. The three averages are there to show exactly that difference.

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Source: MSPSS: Zimet G. D., Dahlem N. W., Zimet S. G., Farley G. K., 1988, The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, Journal of Personality Assessment 52(1), 30-41, DOI 10.1207/s15327752jpa5201_2. Text: the English form from gzimet.wixsite.com/mspss (Gregory Zimet).

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