The Level of Expressed Emotion (LEE) scale was developed to provide an index of the perceived emotional climate in a person's influential relationships. Unlike existing measures, the scale was constructed on the basis of a conceptual framework described by expressed emotion theorists. In addition to providing an overall score, the 60‐item scale assesses the following four characteristic attitudes or response styles of significant others: Intrusiveness, emotional response, attitude toward illness, and tolerance/expectations. The scale underwent extensive psychometric development procedures: (1) theoretically based item generation; (2) pilot testing with normal and psychiatric populations to select the final items; and (3) construct validation within a schizophrenic population. The results were quite favorable and indicate that the LEE scale has sound psychometric properties of internal consistency; reliability; independence from sex, age, and amount of contacts; and construct validity.
The psychometric and factor‐analytic properties of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) were investigated in an undergraduate university student sample and an adolescent inpatient psychiatric sample. Three factors were extracted from each sample and were comparable to those described by the originators of the scale. Reliability, concurrent validity, and construct validity estimates are also reported. The scale demonstrated excellent internal consistency in both samples. In terms of validity, the MSPSS correlated strongly with the Social Support Behaviors scale and showed little relationship to social desirability. As predicted, scores from the MSPSS correlated negatively with two separate measures of depression and positively with a self‐concept measure. However, the strength of relationships between severity of depression and social support subscales differed between the two samples. The implications of these findings for the assessment of perceived social support and for future research are discussed.
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