Validating the Korean Version of the Duke Social Support Index

Considering the increasing number of older people and one-person households of older people in South Korea as well as the importance of social support among older people, there is a need to develop an instrument that assesses both the structural and functional social support of older people. Accordingly, this is the first study to validate the Korean version of the 10-item Duke Social Support Index (DSSI-10), which is composed of the social interaction and satisfaction with social support subscales. A total of 293 respondents who were over 65 years old and attended welfare centers located in the surrounding area of Seoul participated in this study. We found that the Korean version of the DSSI is a reliable and valid social support instrument that exhibits a two-factor structure like its English version. The DSSI also has the advantage of being able to measure structural and functional social support simultaneously. Developing the Korean version of the DSSI will provide a valuable social support instrument for researchers and practitioners in South Korea, where social support scales measuring both types of social support for older people do not yet exist.