Reliability and Validity of the Older Americans Resources and Services (OARS) Social Resources Scale in six European Countries

• OBJECTIVE: This paper documents the applicability of the Older Americans Resources and Services (OARS) Social Resources Scale in six European Countries (the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, Austria, the United Kingdom and Sweden). METHOD: A questionnaire was administered through face-to-face interviews in five countries, and postal interview in the sixth, to representative populations of adults aged 50-90 living independently (N=12478). The paper examines the missing values and distribution of the items in the social resources scale, and the consistency of skew and kurtosis across the countries. Item-total correlations are performed. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) are run to test a three factor model which was obtained in USA and Spanish analyses. Cronbach’s Alpha determines the reliability of the social resources sub-scales. RESULTS: Relatively large proportion of missing data is observed for one item (have someone who would help you). All items correlate with a score equal to or greater than 0.20. Although the CFA generally support the acceptability of the three factor structure in the European data, the reliability of two of the sub-scales (dependability and affective) is unacceptably low. DISCUSSION: Differences across countries makes it unlikely a single social resources scale can be developed that would have item equivalence in multiple countries.

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MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Omvårdnad (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Nursing (hsv//eng)

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