Development and validation of the perceived parental social support scale-lesbian gay (ppss-lg)

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to create a scale to measure parental social support from the perspective of lesbians and gay men. Previous research that has assessed the affects of parental social support for lesbians and gay men have used or adapted general assessments of social support rather than employing scales that take in to consideration the unique aspects of the lesbian and gay experience. Thus, it was suggested that a social support scale inclusive of specific LG experiences would be a better assessment for use in research investigating the effects of social support for LG individuals. Items were generated based on typologies of general social support as well as incorporating behaviors that were thought to display support and acceptance to lesbian and gay children. Following item generation a total of 221 respondents were used to investigate the factor structure through an Exploratory Factor Analysis. After careful evaluation of the factor loadings, communalities and correlations among potential factors it was decided that a one-factor solution was the most parsimonious. Convergent and discriminant validity suggests that the scale accounts for similar variance as other social support scales previously adapted for use with lesbian and gay samples. Additionally, some evidence suggests that the PPSS-LG accounts for variance that other social support scales did not. Suggestions are made for further development and validation of the PPSS-LG including examining the stability of the scale over time. Other implications for future research and scale development as well as the continued validation of the present scale are discussed.