Conclusion
The relationship between social support and the health of Aboriginal Australians is nuanced. The social support derived from extended families provides health benefits, but the high-density networks and lack of financial resources can create over-obligations and force harmful relationships. One main challenge to epidemiological research was the lack of psychological instruments validated to measure social support in this group. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to validate a measure of social support for an Indigenous population. The present study showed that SSS is a construct valid and reliable instrument to measure social support in Aboriginal Australians.