Carnegie Mellon University

Interpersonal Support Evaluation List- General Population

The ISEL consists of a list of 40 statements concerning the perceived availability of potential social resources.  The items are counterbalanced for desireability that is, half the items are positive statements about social relationships (e.g., "If I needed help fixing an appliance or repairing my car, there is someone who would help me."), while half are negative statements  (e.g., "I don't often get invited to do things with others.").   

The ISEL was designed to assess the perceived availability of four separate functions of social support as well as providing an overall support measure.  The items which comprise the ISEL fall into four 10-item subscales.  The "tangible" subscale is intended to measure perceived availability of material aid; the "appraisal" subscale, the perceived availability of someone to talk to about one's problems; the "self-esteem" subscale, the perceived availability of a positive comparison when comparing one's self to others; and the "belonging" subscale, the perceived availability of people one can do things with.  Subscale independence was maximized by selecting items (from a larger item pool) which were highly correlated with items in their own subscale and at the same time minimally correlated with other subscales.

Appraisal items: 1,  6, 11, 17, 19, 22, 26, 30, 36, 38

Tangible items:  2, 9, 14, 16, 18, 23, 29, 33, 35, 39

Self- esteem items:  3, 4, 8, 13, 20, 24, 28, 32, 37, 40

Belonging items:  5, 7, 10, 12, 15, 21, 25, 27, 31, 34

Items that are reverse- coded:  3, 6, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 17, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 34, 35, 36, 39, 40.