The SPAI-18, a brief version of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory: Reliability and validity in clinically referred and non-referred samples

    Authors

    W. de Vente; M. Majdandzic; M. J. Voncken; D. C. Beidel;S. M. Bogels

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    J. Anxiety Disord.

    Keywords

    Psychometric properties; Social anxiety disorder; Social phobia; Anxiety; disorders; PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES; SCALE SIAS; ADOLESCENTS; VALIDATION; CONCURRENT; SPIN; FEAR; SPS; Psychology, Clinical; Psychiatry

    Abstract

    We developed a new version of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory (SPAI) in order to have a brief instrument for measuring social anxiety and social anxiety disorder (SAD) with a strong conceptual foundation. In the construction phase, a set of items representing 5 core aspects of social anxiety was selected by a panel of social anxiety experts. The selected item pool was validated using factor analysis, reliability analysis, and diagnostic analysis in a sample of healthy participants (N= 188) and a sample of clinically referred participants diagnosed with SAD (N=98). This procedure resulted in an abbreviated version of the Social Phobia Subscale of the SPAI consisting of 18 items (i.e. the SPAI-18), which correlated strongly with the Social Phobia Subscale of the original SPAI (both groups r=.98). Internal consistency and diagnostic characteristics using a clinical cut-off score > 48 were good to excellent (Cronbach's alpha healthy group =.93; patient group =.91; sensitivity:.94; specificity:.88). The SPAI-18 was further validated in a community sample of parents-to-be without SAD (N = 237) and with SAD (N= 65). Internal consistency was again excellent (both groups Cronbach's alpha =.93) and a screening cut-off of > 36 proved to result in good sensitivity and specificity. The SPAI-18 also correlated strongly with other social anxiety instruments, supporting convergent validity. In sum, the SPAI-18 is a psychometrically sound instrument with good screening capacity for social anxiety disorder in clinical as well as community samples. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

    Journal Title

    Journal of Anxiety Disorders

    Volume

    28

    Issue/Number

    2

    Publication Date

    1-1-2014

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    140

    Last Page

    147

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000334559300004

    ISSN

    0887-6185

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