Measuring staff support in services for people with intellectual disability: the Staff Support and Satisfaction Questionnaire, Version 2

Social support is an important determinant of well-being, including the stress experienced within the work setting. The present paper reports on the development of the Staff Support and Satisfaction Questionnaire (3SQ), from a previously published measure: the Staff Support Questionnaire. The 3SQ was piloted with 21 health professionals and examined for evidence of test-retest reliability with 24 staff. Data on internal reliability were collected on three occasions from a total sample Of 177 staff. The validity of the 3SQ was examined in four studies with a total of 238 staff by testing it against validated measures of psychological well-being. The data showed that the total scale had a high level of test-retest reliability (r(s) = 0.82, P < 0.001) and consistently high internal reliability. Three out of the four validity studies showed statistically significant inverse relationships between the total scale and measures of psychological well-being. The weakest link was the `Supportive People' subscale. The reliability and validity studies suggest that the psychometric properties of the 3SQ are generally robust, except for the `Supportive People' subscale, which should be interpreted with caution.