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Measurement of Maternal Instrumental Support: Findings from Three Population-Based Cohort Studies

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Abstract

To advance the conceptualization and measurement of mother-reported instrumental support, the degree to which an individual receives assistance in the completion of daily life tasks. The psychometric properties of a 9-item instrumental support scale were evaluated using classical (descriptive statistics, factor analyses, evaluation of construct validity) and modern (Rasch modeling, differential item functioning) methods. Differences in perceived instrumental support were evaluated as a function of mothers’ socio-demographic characteristics. Factor analytic and differential item functioning analyses provided support for two components of instrumental support, household and childcare assistance. Instrumental support is distinct from structural support and the quality of mothers’ social relationships. Socio-demographic characteristics (e.g., marital status, education level, income) are associated with access to instrumental support. Differentiating appropriately between support subtypes may reveal important differences in mother’s qualitative instrumental support experiences and facilitate effective targeting of social support interventions.

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Abbreviations

MSSI:

Maternal Social Support Index

HIP:

Health Insurance Improvement Project

P3:

Tailoring Pediatric Preventive Care Project

SCS:

Social Capital Scale Study

SOAR-Net:

Southwestern Ohio Ambulatory Research Network

CFA:

Confirmatory factor analysis

DIF:

Differential item functioning

GLM:

Generalized linear models

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from the Commonwealth Fund (Dr. Pati) and from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (K23HD047655 to Dr. Pati). We thank the networks of primary care physicians, their patients and families within the Southwestern Ohio Ambulatory Research Network for their contributions to clinical research through the Pediatric Research Consortium (PeRC) at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Dayton Primary Care Practice-Based Research Network (DPCPBRN). We thank Adrienne Stolfi for her assistance with biostatistics. We also thank Angie Wong for her editorial assistance with this project.

Conflict of interest

None to disclose.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of General Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, 3535 Market Street, Room 1452, Philadelphia, PA, 19104-4399, USA

    Katherine B. Bevans

  2. Division of Primary Care Pediatrics, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY, USA

    Suraj K. Bhatt & Susmita Pati

  3. Department of Pediatrics, The Children’s Medical Center of Dayton, Dayton, OH, USA

    John M. Pascoe

  4. Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Susmita Pati

Authors
  1. Katherine B. Bevans
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  2. Suraj K. Bhatt
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  3. John M. Pascoe
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  4. Susmita Pati
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katherine B. Bevans.

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Bevans, K.B., Bhatt, S.K., Pascoe, J.M. et al. Measurement of Maternal Instrumental Support: Findings from Three Population-Based Cohort Studies. Matern Child Health J 17, 14–22 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-012-0958-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-012-0958-2

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