Assessing Family Social Support for Functional Autonomy and Dependence in Pain: A Psychometric Study

•The Informal Social Support for Autonomy and Dependence in Pain Inventory is a novel self-report measure of family pain-related social support.•It assesses received social support for functional autonomy and dependence in pain.•It has a 3 -factor structure, very good internal reliability, and good concurrent validity.•It is associated with relevant acute and chronic pain outcomes and coping strategies.•Men (vs women) with acute pain report more family support for functional dependence. Assessing family supportive responses to pain behaviors is paramount, as these may help or hinder chronic pain (CP) adjustment. Current self-report measures of pain-specific family supportive dynamics are scarce, covering a limited range of responses. To address this gap, this paper aimed at the psychometric validation of a (revised) novel measure - the Informal Social Support for Autonomy and Dependence in Pain Inventory (ISSADI-PAIN). Three-hundred and three adults participated in this study (53.3% women; Mage = 49.31), 53.5% with current CP, 20.1% with acute pain (AP) in the previous week and 26.4% with no current pain. All participants completed the revised ISSADI-PAIN. Participants reporting AP/CP in the previous week also filled out measures of pain coping/outcomes. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyzes supported a 3-factor structure: Perceived Promotion of Dependence (PPD; 5 items; α = .82), Perceived Promotion of Autonomy-Emotional (PPA-Emot; 3 items; α = .78), PPA-instrumental (PPA-Inst; 3 items; α = .82). Higher PPD was associated with higher AP disability and less wellness-focused coping; higher PPA-Emot was associated with more wellness-focused CP coping; PPA-Inst was associated with better/worse AP/CP outcomes and more frequent use of wellness-focused CP coping. Men with AP reported more PPD than women. The revised ISSADI-PAIN is an innovative, valid, and reliable measure of relevant functions of pain-related social support, which may influence pain persistence and adaptation. This article presents a novel self-report measure (ISSADI-PAIN) that assesses family support for functional autonomy and dependence in pain contexts. This measure may contribute to further research on the complexities of family supportive dynamics surrounding individuals with AP/CP, clarifying their role on pain persistence and adaptation processes.