Abstract

The community is a psychosocial resource that promotes well-being in old age. This article presents the validation of the Questionnaire of Community Social Support in a representative sample of elderly Chilean people (n=777). The results of this research confirm the original model of three factors (Gracia, Herrero, & Musitu, 2002), namely: community integration, community participation and social support from formal systems. The three factors explained together 82% of the variance of the construct. This questionnaire constitutes a tool for gerontological social intervention in order to prevent the isolation or lack of social integration of the elderly.