THE MEASUREMENT OF SOCIAL WELL-BEING

This paper provides a conceptual framework for viewing social well-being as composed of two elements: social adjustment and social support. Social adjustment is a combination of satisfaction with relationships, performance in social roles and adjustment to one's environment. Social support is composed of the number of contacts in.one's social network and satisfaction with those contacts. Through the pioneering work of McDowell and Newell, comparative ratings of measures of social adjustment and social support are available. It appears that Weissman's Social Adjustment Scale and Sarason's Social Support Scale are currently the best measures in terms of validity and reliability. But, they are merely starting points for future measurement of these concepts.