Validation of the Malay version of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS-M) among patients with cancer in Malaysia

Wenjun Song; Nor Shuhada Mansor; Nurul Izzah Shari; Nizuwan Azman; Ruiling Zhang; Mohammad Farris Iman Leong Bin Abdullah

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0293698

Validation of the Malay version of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS-M) among patients with cancer in Malaysia

PLoS One. 2023 Nov 21;18(11):e0293698. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0293698. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Wenjun Song^{1

2}, Nor Shuhada Mansor², Nurul Izzah Shari³, Nizuwan Azman⁴, Ruiling Zhang¹, Mohammad Farris Iman Leong Bin Abdullah²

Affiliations

¹ The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, Henan, People's Republic of China.
² Department of Community Health, Advanced Medical and Dental Institute, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kepala Batas, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia.
³ School of Human Resource Development and Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities (FSSH), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia.
⁴ Bioinformatics and Biostatistics Section, Advanced Medical and Dental Institute, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kepala Batas, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia.

Abstract

Background: The well-being and adaptive functioning of patients with cancer depend on their perception of social support. To accurately assess and understand the impact of social support in a diverse population, validated measurement tools are essential. This study aimed to adapt and validate the Malay version of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS-M) among patients with cancer in Malaysia.

Methods: A total of 346 cancer patients with mixed disease types were recruited and completed the socio-demographic and clinical characteristics questionnaire and the MSPSS-M. The MSPSS-M was assessed for internal consistency, construct validity, face, content, convergent, discriminant validity, and confirmatory factor analyses.

Results: The MSPSS-M and its three domains demonstrated good internal consistency with Cronbach's α ranging from 0.900 to 0.932. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the MSPSS-M supported the three-factor model of the original English version of the MSPSS. The MSPSS-M also exhibited good convergent validity and discriminant validity.

Conclusion: The MSPSS-M demonstrates favorable psychometric properties among patients with cancer in Malaysia. The validation of the MSPSS-M provides a culturally adapted and linguistically valid instrument to assess perceived social support among Malay-speaking patients with cancer in Malaysia.

Copyright: © 2023 Song et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

MeSH terms

Humans
Malaysia
Neoplasms*
Psychometrics / methods
Reproducibility of Results
Social Support*
Surveys and Questionnaires

Grants and funding

This research was supported by grant GG2019036 from Xinxiang Science and Technology Bureau and grant 212102310585 from the Department of Science and Technology of Henan Province, China. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.