Skip to main content
Search
Search
    Quick Search anywhere
    Quick search in Citations
Advanced Search
Skip main navigationClose Drawer MenuOpen Drawer Menu
Previous article
Next article
Original Articles

Brief Form of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory (SPAI-B) for Adolescents

Published Online:July 02, 2008https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759.24.3.150

Abstract

Although social phobia is one of the most common mental disorders in adolescents, there are few reliable and valid assessment instruments for this age group. This study examined the factor structure and psychometric properties of a brief version of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory (SPAI; Turner, Beidel, Dancu, & Stanley, 1989) in a sample of adolescents. Although the original 45-item SPAI has excellent psychometric properties, its utility is limited by its length. We developed and piloted a brief, 16-item version of the SPAI that has good psychometric properties, assesses cognitive, behavioral, and somatic symptoms, consistent with the original scale, which may be particularly useful as a screening measure. Limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed.

References

  • Albano, A.M. , Detweiler, M.F. (2001). The developmental and clinical impact of social anxiety and social phobia in children and adolescents. In S.G. Hofmann, P.M. DiBartolo, (Eds.), From social anxiety to social phobia (pp. 162–178). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Beidel, D.C. , Turner, S.M. (1998). Comorbidity of test anxiety and other anxiety disorders in children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 16, 275–287. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Beidel, D.C. , Turner, S.M. , Cooley, M.R. (1993). Assessing reliability and clinically significant change in social phobia: Validity of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory. Behavior Research and Therapy, 31, 331–337. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Beidel, D.C. , Turner, S.M. , Morris, T.L. (1999). Psychopathology of childhood social phobia. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 38, 643–650. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Bögels, S.M. , Reith, W. (1999). Validity of two questionnaires to assess social fears: The Dutch Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory and the Blushing, Trembling and Sweating Questionnaire. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 21, 51–66. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Clark, D.B. , Turner, S.M. , Beidel, D.C. , Donovan, J.E. , Kirisci, L. , Jacob, R.G. (1994). Reliability and validity of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for adolescents. Psychological Assessment, 6, 135–140. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Connor, K. , Davidson, J. , Churchill, L. , Sherwood, A. , Foa, E. , Weisler, R. (2000). Psychometric properties of the Social Phobia Inventory. British Journal of Psychiatry, 176, 379–86. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Cox, B.J. , Ross, L. , Swinson, R.P. , Direnfeld, D.M. (1998). A comparison of social phobia outcome measures in cognitive-behavioral group therapy. Behavior Modification, 22, 285–297. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Cronbach, L. (1951). Coefficient α and the internal consistency of tests. Psychometrika, 16, 297–334. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Essau, C.A. , Conradt, J. , Petermann, F. (1999). Frequency and comorbidity of social phobia and social fears in adolescents. Behavior Research and Therapy, 37, 831–843. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Essau, C.A. , Conradt, J. , Petermann, F. (2002). Course and outcome of anxiety disorders in adolescents. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 16, 67–81. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Fehm, L. , Pélissolo, A. , Furmark, T. , Wittchen, H.-U. (2005). Size and burden of social phobia. European Neuropsychopharmacology, 15, 453–462. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Garcia-Lopez, L.J. , Ingles, C.J. , Garcia-Fernandez, J.M. (2008). Exploring the relevance of gender and age differences to the assessment of social fears in adolescence. Social Behavior and Personality, 36, 385–390. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Garcia-Lopez, L.J. , Olivares, J. , Hidalgo, M.D. (2005). A pilot study on sensitivity of outcome measures for treatments of generalized social phobia in adolescents. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, 5, 385–392. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Garcia-Lopez, L.J. , Olivares, J. , Hidalgo, M.D. , Beidel, D.C. , Turner, S.M. (2001). Psychometric properties of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory, the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents, the Fear of Negative Evaluation scale and the Social Avoidance and Distress scale in an adolescent Spanish sample. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 23, 51–59. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Garcia-Lopez, L.J. , Olivares, J. , Vera-Villarroel, P. E. (2003). Social anxiety disorder: Revision of assessment measures for Spanish-speaking population. Revista Latinoamericana de Psicología, 35, 151–160. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Garcia-Lopez, L.J. , Piqueras, J.A. , Diaz-Castela, M.M. , Ingles, C.J. (in press). Social anxiety disorder in childhood and adolescents: Current trends, advances, and future directions. Psicologia Conductual [Behavioral Psychology]. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Hedges, L.V. (1981). Distribution theory for Glass’s estimator of effect size and related estimators. Journal of Educational Statistics, 6, 107–128. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Herbert, J.D. , Bellack, A.S. , Hope, D.A. (1991). Concurrent validity of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 4, 39–51. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Hopkins, W.G. (2000). A new view of statistics. Internet Society for Sport Science. Retrieved on April 31, 2006, from www.sportsci.org/resource/stats First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Inglés, C.J. , Hidalgo, M.D. , Mendez, F.X. (2005). Interpersonal differences in adolescence. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 21, 11–22. First citation in articleLink, Google Scholar

  • Jöreskog, K.G. , Sörbom, D. (1993). LISREL 8. User’s reference guide. Chicago: Scientific Software. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • La Greca, A.M. , López, N. (1998). Social anxiety among adolescents: Linkages with peer relations and friendships. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 26, 83–94. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Masia-Warner, C. , Storch, E. , Pincus, D.B. , Klein, R. , Heimberg, R. , Liebowitz, M. (2003). The Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale for Children and Adolescents: An initial psychometric investigation. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 42, 1076–1084. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Mattick, R.P. , Clarke, J.C. (1998). Development and validation of measures of social phobia scrutiny fear and social interaction anxiety. Behavior Research and Therapy, 36, 455–470. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Olivares, J. , Garcia-Lopez, L.J. , Hidalgo, M.D. , Caballo, V. (2004). Relationships among social anxiety measures and their invariance: A confirmatory factor analysis. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 20, 172–179. First citation in articleLink, Google Scholar

  • Olivares, J. , Garcia-Lopez, L.J. , Hidalgo, M.D. , LaGreca, A.M. , Turner, S.M. , Beidel, D.C. (2002). A pilot study on normative data for two social anxiety measures: The Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory and the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, 2, 467–476. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Olivares, J. , Garcia-Lopez, L.J. , Hidalgo, M.D. , Turner, S.M. , Beidel, D.C. (1999). The Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory: Reliability and validity in an adolescent Spanish population. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 21, 67–78. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Olivares, J. , Ruiz, J. , Hidalgo, M.D. , Garcia-Lopez, L.J. , Rosa, A.I. , Piqueras, J.A. (2005). Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SAS-A): Psychometric properties in a Spanish-speaking population. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, 5, 85–97. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Puklek, M. (2000). Social anxiety in Slovene adolescents: Psychometric properties of a new measure, age differences and relations with self-consciousness and perceived incompetence. European Review of Applied Psychology, 50, 249–258. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Ramsay, J.O. (2000). TestGraph: A program for the graphical analysis of multiple choice test and questionnaire data (unpublished manual). Montreal, Canada: McGill University. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Ries, B.J. , McNeil, D.W. , Boone, M.L. , Turk, C.L. , Carter, L.E. , Heimberg, R.G. (1998). Assessment of contemporary social phobia verbal report instruments. Behavior Research and Therapy, 36, 983–994. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Roberson-Nay, R. , Strong, D.R. , Nay, W.T. , Beidel, D.C. , Turner, S.M. (2007). Development of an abbreviated Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory (SPAI) using item response theory: The SPAI-23. Psychological Assessment, 19, 133–145. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Safren, S.A. , Turk, C.L. , Heimberg, R.G. (1998). Factor structure of the Social Interaction Anxiety scale and the Social Phobia scale. Behavior Research and Therapy, 36, 443–453. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Turner, S.M. , Beidel, D.C. , Dancu, C.V. , Stanley, M.A. (1989). An empirically derived inventory to measure social fears and anxiety: The Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory. Psychological Assessment, 1, 35–40. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Wittchen, H.U. , Stein, M.B. , Kessler, R.C. (1999). Social fears and social phobia in a community sample of adolescents and young adults: Prevalence, risk factors and co-morbidity. Psychological Medicine, 29, 309–323. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar