Title

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

Authors

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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