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[Social support as a modifier of response to stress: theoretical aspects and measurement].

BACKGROUND
The authors present different definitions of social support. The influence of social support on the relation between stress and its health effects is discussed. The findings of the studies on traumatic stress among police officers and fire-fighters made the authors develop a short questionnaire to measure emotional social support as related to problems at work.


MATERIALS AND METHODS
A four-item questionnaire was constructed to determine the level of social support as well as to identify its providers when the subject is nervous or under strain due to work-related problems. A group of police officers (n = 102) was examined twice to assess the psychometric characteristics of the questionnaire.


RESULTS
Discrimination power of the questionnaire items was satisfactory. Internal reliability and stability of the results appeared to be at the acceptable level. Factor analysis confirmed that the theoretical structure of the questionnaire was correct.


CONCLUSIONS
The questionnaire proved to be a useful and economical instrument for measuring emotional social support. It may be administered in research projects focused on the modifying role of social support in the relation between job stress and health.