Perceived Social Risk Scale: development and validation in relation to social status and depression in the UK

Newton, Joseph and Andrews, Jack L. 2025. Perceived Social Risk Scale: development and validation in relation to social status and depression in the UK. BMJ Open 15 , e092107. 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-092107

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Abstract

Objective To develop and validate the Perceived Social Risk Scale (PSRS) for assessing perceptions of socially risky behaviours, and to validate it against existing psychological measures such as perceived social status and depressive symptoms in a UK sample of older adolescents and adults. Design A cross-sectional study involving exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Setting Participants were recruited from the Cardiff University’s Department of Psychology participant pool (students completing studies for course credit) and Prolific Academic (a crowdsourcing platform for research volunteers). Data collection occurred between 17 February and 6 May 2024. Participants A total of 640 UK participants, including both men and women, aged 18-65. Main outcome measures We measured the internal consistency of the PSRS, test-retest reliability and validity against measures including rejection sensitivity, perceived social status, depressive symptoms and resistance to peer influence. Moderation analyses examined the role of perceived social status, age and a sense of belonging in the relationship between PSRS scores and depressive symptoms. Results The PSRS showed excellent internal consistency (α=0.96) and good test-retest reliability (Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC)=0.70). Perceptions of social risks significantly declined with age (r=−0.20, p<0.001) and factor analyses confirmed that the PSRS differentiates among four distinct but related social risk constructs: authenticity and integrity (α=0.91), social assertiveness (α=0.72), reservedness (α=0.83) and social non-conformity (α=0.72). For evidence of convergent validity, higher PSRS scores were associated with increased sensitivity to social rejection (r=0.23, p<0.001), elevated depressive symptoms (r=0.13, p=0.012) and negatively correlated with resistance to peer influence (r=−0.13, p=0.013). Local perceived social status significantly moderated the relationship between PSRS scores and depressive symptoms (β=0.005, SE=0.002, t=2.36, p=0.019). A general sense of belonging did not moderate this relationship. Conclusions Our results confirm that social risk is not a uniform construct but is instead multidimensional. The PSRS offers a reliable and valid tool for assessing multidimensional social risk-taking, with strong internal consistency and test–retest reliability. The interaction between depression and local perceived social status highlights the importance of perceived status on social risk perception.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Psychology
Publisher:	BMJ Publishing Group
ISSN:	2044-6055
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	9 October 2025
Date of Acceptance:	24 September 2025
Last Modified:	10 Oct 2025 13:00
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/181576

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