Berlin Social Support Scales (BSSS)

Abstract

The Berlin Social Support Scales (BSSS), developed by Ralf Schwarzer and Ute Schulz in 2000, represent a comprehensive, multidimensional instrument designed to assess various facets of social support. Unlike many established measures, the BSSS captures both cognitive aspects (perceived availability and need) and dynamic behavioral aspects (actually received and provided support, and protective buffering). The scale was developed based on extensive theoretical considerations and refined through expert review and pilot studies, primarily focusing on populations coping with major health stressors, such as cancer patients. The BSSS is highly flexible, allowing researchers to obtain general scores or fine-grained scores for specific support types, including emotional, instrumental, and informational support.

Keywords

Social Support, Berlin Social Support Scales, BSSS, Perceived Support, Received Support, Protective Buffering, Coping, Psychometrics, Dyadic Assessment, Stress Management.

Authors

Ralf Schwarzer, Ute Schulz

Purpose

The primary purpose of the BSSS is to provide a detailed, multidimensional assessment of social support that goes beyond simple perceived availability. Its unique structure enables the measurement of six distinct but interrelated subscales, allowing for a holistic view of the support process—from the recipient’s internal needs and perceptions to the actual behaviors exchanged within a social network, often focusing on marital dyads.

The instrument is particularly valuable in research contexts requiring a fine-grained analysis of support types. By summarizing respective item scores, researchers can generate discrete measures of emotional, instrumental, and informational support for both perceived and actual support categories. This flexibility makes the BSSS suitable for longitudinal studies and comparisons across diverse populations, from healthy individuals to those in clinical settings facing chronic disease.

Construct

The BSSS operationalizes the construct of social support as a complex system encompassing both stable cognitive beliefs and fluctuating behavioral interactions. The instrument measures this construct through six primary subscales, which collectively capture different dimensions of the support process:

• Perceived Support: The cognitive belief that support is available if needed (often a stable characteristic).
• Need for Support: The desire or necessity for help or comfort.
• Support Seeking: The behavioral tendency to actively solicit support from others.
• Actually Received Support: The specific support behaviors provided by a close partner over a defined, recent period.
• Actually Provided Support: The specific support behaviors offered by a partner to the recipient over a defined period (used in dyadic assessment).
• Protective Buffering: A coping strategy where the provider attempts to shield the recipient from distress or bad news.

Validity

The validity of the Berlin Social Support Scales has been empirically demonstrated across several key studies focusing on health and coping mechanisms. Specifically, research published by Schulz and Schwarzer in 2003 and 2004 provided evidence supporting the scale’s ability to accurately measure the intended constructs within clinical populations.

Furthermore, the scale’s responsiveness to change over time, particularly for the dynamic subscales (Received and Provided Support, Protective Buffering), supports its ecological validity in tracking adjustment requirements and stress levels during varying coping tasks, such as recovery from surgery or managing chronic illness. Higher levels of received support, as measured by the BSSS, have been consistently associated with indicators of better psychosocial adjustment in recipients.

Reliability

The BSSS demonstrates generally strong internal consistency, confirming the reliability of its multifaceted structure. The psychometrics were primarily validated using a sample of cancer patients (N=457) and a partner sample (n=175).

Internal consistency, measured using Cronbach’s alpha, for the major subscales in the patient sample was robust: Perceived Social Support (8 items) achieved .83; Received Social Support (general score, 11 items) achieved .83; Support Seeking (5 items) achieved .81; and Protective Buffering (6 items) achieved .82. Internal consistency for Provided Social Support (general score, 11 items) in the partner sample was .75. It should be noted that the Need for Support subscale (4 items) showed a lower, though acceptable, Cronbach’s alpha of .63, suggesting it measures a more narrow or less cohesive construct than the other subscales.

Factor Analysis

While specific factor analysis details are not fully provided, the structure of the BSSS clearly implies a multidimensional factor model corresponding to the six core subscales (Perceived, Received, Provided, Need, Seeking, Buffering). Crucially, the BSSS allows for further sub-factoring of the Perceived, Received, and Provided support scales into specific types: Emotional Support, Instrumental Support, and Informational Support. This sub-scoring capability suggests that the underlying factor structure accommodates both the source/direction of the support (e.g., received vs. provided) and the functional type of the support being exchanged (e.g., emotional vs. instrumental).

Instrument

Test Type: Multidimensional Self-Report Inventory and Dyadic Assessment Tool

Format: Patients rate their agreement with statements on a four-point Likert scale. Responses range from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree). Negative items require reversal. Scale scores are calculated via sum scores or mean scores.

Language Available: German (original), widely translated (English and others).

Population Group: Adults in general, clinical populations (especially those coping with illness), and marital/social dyads.

Age Group: Adult.

Population Details: Validation studies focused on cancer patients and their spouses/partners coping with stressful episodes.

Test Methodology: The scale is flexible; subscales can be applied separately or in conjunction. The dynamic subscales (Received/Provided Support and Protective Buffering) are suitable for repeated measurement to assess changes in support needs and exchange over time.

Keywords

Emotional Support, Instrumental Support, Informational Support, Dyadic Assessment, Stressful Episodes, Psychosocial Adjustment, Cronbach’s alpha, Psychological Measurement.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided in source content.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not provided in source content.

Correspondence Address: Not provided in source content.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: 2000 (Schwarzer & Schulz).

Permissions and Fee: Information regarding permissions and fees is not provided in the source material. However, key references and English articles related to the BSSS are publicly accessible via the authors’ academic resources. See articles in English at: https://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~health/support/social_support_public.htm.

Reference’s

Cohen S, Underwood LG & Gottlieb BH, editors. Social support measurement and interventions: A guide for health and social scientists. New York: Oxford; 2000.

Coyne JC & Smith DAF. Couples coping with a myocardial infarction: A contextual perspective on wives’ distress. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1991; 61:404-412.

Eckenrode J. The mobilization of social support: Some individual constraints. American Journal of Community Psychology. 1983; 11: 509-528.

Klauer T & Schwarzer R. Soziale Unterstützung und Depression [Social support and depression]. Verhaltenstherapie und Verhaltensmedizin.Themenheft: Soziales Netz und psychische Störungen. 2001; 22:333-352.

Laireiter A & Baumann U. Network structures and support functions: Theoretical and empirical analyses. In Veiel HOF & Baumann U, editors. The meaning and measurement of social support. New York: Hemisphere; 1992. p. 33-55.

Leppin A & Schwarzer R. Sozialer Rückhalt, Krankheit und Gesundheitsverhalten [Social support, illness, and health behavior]. In Schwarzer, R, editor. Gesundheitspsychologie. Ein Lehrbuch. Göttingen: Hogrefe; 1997. p. 349-373.

Sarason I, Sarason BR & Pierce GR. Three contexts of social support. In Veiel HOF & Baumann U, editors. The meaning and measurement of social support. New York: Hemisphere; 1992. p. 143-154.

Schulz U & Schwarzer R. Soziale Unterstützung bei der Krankheitsbewältigung. Die Berliner Social Support Skalen (BSSS) [Social support in coping with illness: The Berlin Social Support Scales (BSSS)]. Diagnostica. 2003; 49: 73-82.

Schulz U & Schwarzer R. Long-term effects of spousal support on coping with cancer after surgery. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology. 2004; 23: 716-732.

Schwarzer R, Knoll N, & Rieckmann N. Social support. In Kaptein A & Weinman J, editors. Health Psychology. 2004, Oxford, England: Blackwell: p. 158-182.

Schwarzer R & Leppin A. Social support and health: A theoretical and empirical overview. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. 1991; 8:99-127.

Vaux A. Assessment of social support. In Veiel HOF & Baumann U, editors. The meaning and measurement of social support 1992; New York: Hemisphere: p. 193-216.

Wills TA & Fegan MF. Social networks and social support. In Baum A, Revenson TA & Singer JE, editors. Handbook of health psychology. 2001. Mahwah: Erlbaum: p. 209-234.

Items of the Berlin Social Support Scales (BSSS)

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

Endorsements (for all BSSS scales):

• (1) strongly disagree
• (2) somewhat disagree
• (3) somewhat agree
• (4) strongly agree

Perceived Emotional Support, Perceived Instrumental Support, Need for Support & Support Seeking

Please think of persons who are close to you.

Please note that in the 2001 cancer surgery study these items were presented in a mixed order. The present listing by scale has been chosen for clarity.

Actually Received Support, Recipient

Think about the person who is closest to you, such as your spouse, partner, child, friend, and so on. How did this person react to you during this past week?

Please note that in the 2001 cancer surgery study these items were presented in a mixed order. The present listing has been chosen for clarity.

Satisfaction with Support Receipt (Recipient only)

In general, I am very satisfied with the way this person behaved.

Note: Negative items have not been used in the original 2001 cancer surgery study.

Actually Provided Support, Provider (for a Male Recipient)

Now think about the patient. How did you interact with him during this past week?

Protective Bufferig Scale: Support Provider/Support Recipient

Items

Note: Different forms for men and women were used in the cancer study