Abstract
This study describes a series of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses that were conducted with the 44-item Social Anxiety Questionnaire for Children- 4th version (SAQ-CIV) to identify a reduced set of items that might be used to construct a new abbreviated instrument for measuring social anxiety in children and adolescents. The fourth version of the Social Anxiety Questionnaire for Children (SAQ-CIV) was administered to 12,801 non-clinical participants (ages 9 to 15 years) from 12 Latin American countries and Spain. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis supported a 6-factor structure of social anxiety in children, replicating a similar structure to that of adults (Caballo et al. in Behavioral Psychology/Psicología Conductual, 18(1), 5–34, 2010; Caballo et al. in Behavior Therapy, 43(2), 313–328, 2012): 1) Interactions with the opposite sex, 2) Criticism and embarrassment, 3) Speaking in public/Talking to teachers, 4) Assertive expression of annoyance and disgust, 5) Performing in public, and 6) Interactions with strangers. Each of the factors contains 4 items, yielding an abbreviated 24-item instrument, the Social Anxiety Questionnaire for Children (SAQ-C). The present results suggest this is a reliable, valid, and culturally sensitive instrument to assess social anxiety in youth.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington: Author.
Aune, T., Stiles, T. C., & Svarva, K. (2008). Psychometric properties of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children using a non-American population-based sample. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 22(6), 1075–1086. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2007.11.006.
Beidel, D. C., Turner, S. M., & Morris, T. L. (1995). A new inventory to assess childhood social anxiety and phobia: the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children. Psychological Assessment, 7(1), 73–79. doi:10.1037/1040-3590.7.1.73.
Beidel, D. C., Turner, S. M., & Young, B. J. (2006). Social effectiveness therapy for children: five years later. Behavior Therapy, 37(4), 416–425. doi:10.1016/j.beth.2006.06.002.
Caballo, V. E., Arias, B., Salazar, I. C., Calderero, M., Irurtia, M. J., & Ollendick, T. H. (2012a). A new self-report assessment measure of social phobia/anxiety in children: the Social Anxiety Questionnaire for Children (SAQ-C24). Behavioral Psychology/Psicología Conductual, 20(3), 485–503.
Caballo, V. E., Arias, B., Salazar, I. C., Irurtia, M. J., Hofmann, S. G., & Research Team, C. I. S. O.-A. (2015a). Psychometric properties of an innovative self-report measure: the Social Anxiety Questionnaire for adults. Psychological Assessment, 27(3), 997–1012. doi:10.1037/a0038828.
Caballo, V. E., Calderero, M., Arias, B., Salazar, I. C., & Irurtia, M. J. (2012b). Desarrollo y validación de una nueva medida de autoinforme para evaluar el acoso escolar (bullying) [Development and validation of a new self-report assessment measure of bullying]. Behavioral Psychology/Psicología Conductual, 20(3), 625–647.
Caballo, V. E., Carrillo, G. B., & Ollendick, T. H. (2015b). Effectiveness of a social skills training playful program for the intervention on social anxiety in children. Behavioral Psychology/Psicología Conductual, 23(3), 403–427.
Caballo, V. E., Salazar, I. C., Arias, B., Irurtia, M. J., Calderero, M., & Research Team Spain, C. I. S. O.-A. (2010a). Validation of the Social Anxiety Questionnaire for Adults (SAQ-A30) with Spanish university students: Similarities and differences among degree subjects and regions. Behavioral Psychology/Psicología Conductual, 18(1), 5–34.
Caballo, V. E., Salazar, I. C., Irurtia, M. J., Arias, B., Hofmann, S. G., & CISO-A Research Team. (2010b). Measuring social anxiety in 11 countries: development and validation of the Social Anxiety Questionnaire for Adults. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 26(2), 95–107. doi:10.1027/1015-5759.
Caballo, V. E., Salazar, I. C., Irurtia, M. J., Arias, B., Hofmann, S. G., & Research Team, C. I. S. O.-A. (2012c). The multidimensional nature and multicultural validity of a new measure of social anxiety: the Social Anxiety Questionnaire for Adults. Behavior Therapy, 43(2), 313–328. doi:10.1016/j.beth.2011.07.001.
Caballo, V. E., Salazar, I. C., Irurtia, M. J., Arias, B., & Nobre, L. (2013). The assessment of social anxiety through five self-report measures, LSAS-SR, SPAI, SPIN, SPS, and SIAS: a critical analysis of their factor structure. Behavioral Psychology/Psicología Conductual, 21(3), 423–450.
Cakin Memik, N., Sismanlar, S. G., Yildiz, O., Karakaya, I., Isik, C., & Agaoglu, B. (2010). Social anxiety level in Turkish adolescents. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 19(10), 765–772. doi:10.1007/s00787-010-0119-3.
Chen, F. F. (2007). Sensitivity of goodness of fit indexes to lack of measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling, 14(3), 464–504. doi:10.1080/10705510701301834.
Cheung, G. W., & Rensvold, R. B. (2002). Evaluating goodness-of-fit indexes for testing measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling, 9(2), 233–255. doi:10.1207/S15328007SEM0902_5.
Epkins, C. C. (2002). A comparison of two self-report measures of children’s social anxiety in clinical and community samples. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 31(1), 69–79.
Essau, C. A., Olaya, B., Pasha, G., O’Callaghan, J., & Bray, D. (2012). The structure of anxiety symptoms among adolescents in Iran: a confirmatory factor analytic study of the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 26(8), 871–878. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2012.08.001.
García-López, L. J., Salvador, M. C., & de los Reyes, A. (2015). Assessment of social anxiety in adolescents. In K. Ranta, A. M. La Greca, L. J. García-López, & M. Marttunen (Eds.), Social anxiety and phobia in adolescents (pp. 121–150). New York: Springer.
Gauer, G. J. C., Picon, P., Vasconcellos, S. J. L., Turner, S. M., & Beidel, D. C. (2005). Validation of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children (SPAI-C) in a sample of Brazilian children. Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research, 38(5), 795–800. doi:10.1590/S0100-879X2005000500019.
Gignac, G. E., & Watkins, M. W. (2013). Bifactor modeling and the estimation of model-based reliability in the WAIS-IV. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 48(5), 639–662. doi:10.1080/00273171.2013.804398.
Gren-Landell, M., Tillfors, M., Furmark, T., Bohlin, G., Andersson, G., & Göran Svedin, C. (2009). Social phobia in Swedish adolescents. Prevalence and gender differences. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 44(1), 1–7. doi:10.1007/s00127-008-0400-7.
Hofmann, S. G., Albano, A. M., Heimberg, R. G., Tracey, S., Chorpita, B. F., & Barlow, D. H. (1999). Subtypes of social phobia in adolescents. Depression and Anxiety, 9(1), 15–18. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1520-6394(1999)9:1<15::AID-DA2>3.0.CO;2-6.
Horn, J. L. (1965). A rationale and test for the number of factors in factor analysis. Psychometrika, 30, 179–185. doi:10.1007/BF02289447.
IBM. (2013). IBM SPSS Statistics (Version 22.0) [computer program]. Chicago: Author.
Jöreskog, K. G., & Sörbom, D. (2008). LISREL 8.80 user’s guide. Lincolnwood: Scientific Software International.
Isolan, L., Salum, G. A., Osowski, A. T., Amaro, E., & Manfro, G. G. (2011). Psychometric properties of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) in Brazilian children and adolescents. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 25(5), 741–748. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2011.03.015.
Kashdan, T. B., & Herbert, J. D. (2001). Social anxiety disorder in childhood and adolescence: current status and future directions. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 4(1), 37–61. doi:10.1023/A:1009576610507.
Kline, R. B. (2010). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (3rd ed.). New York: Guilford.
Kuusikko, S., Pollock-Wurman, R., Ebeling, H., Hurtig, T., Joskitt, L., Mattila, M.-L., Jussila, K., & Moilanen, I. (2009). Psychometric evaluation of Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children (SPAI-C) and Social Anxiety Scale for Children-Revised (SASC-R). European Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 18(2), 116–124. doi:10.1007/s00787-008-0712-x.
La Greca, A. M., & Stone, W. L. (1993). Social Anxiety Scale for Children-Revised: factor structure and concurrent validity. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 22(1), 17–27. doi:10.1207/s15374424jccp2201_2.
La Greca, A. M. (1998). Social Anxiety Scales for Children and Adolescents: manual and instructions for the SASC, SASC-R, SAS-A (adolescents), and parent versions of the scales. Miami: Author.
Lorenzo-Seva, U., & ten Berge, J. M. F. (2006). Tucker’s congruence coefficient as a meaningful index of factor similarity. Methodology, 2(2), 57–64. doi:10.1027/1614-1881.2.2.57.
Martins, A. C., Almeida, J. P., & Viana, V. (2014). Ansiedade social na infância e pré-adolescência: Adaptação para o português de Portugal da SASC-R [Social anxiety disorder in childhood and pre-adolescence: Adaptation of the SASC-R for European Portuguese]. Psicologia Reflexão e Crítica, 27(2), 300–307. doi:10.1590/1678-7153.201427210.
Masia-Warner, C. L., Klein, R. G., Liebowitz, M. R. (2002). The Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale for Children and Adolescents (LSAS-CA). Available in Carrie L. Masia-Warner, Ph.D., New York University School of Medicine, Child Study Center, 215 Lexington Avenue, 13th floor, Nueva York, NY 10016, USA.
Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (2015). MPlus (Version 7.4) [Computer software]. Los Angeles: Author.
Ogliari, A., Scaini, S., Kofler, M. J., Lampis, V., Zanoni, A., Pesenti-Gritti, P., & Beidel, D. C. (2012). Psychometric properties of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children (SPAI-C). A sample of Italian school-aged children from the general population. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 28(1), 51–59. doi:10.1027/1015-5759/a000090.
Olivares, J., Sánchez-García, R., López-Pina, J. A., & Rosa-Alcázar, A. I. (2010). Psychometric properties of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children in a Spanish sample. The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 13(2), 961–969. doi:10.1017/S1138741600002602.
Ollendick, T. H., & Hirshfeld-Becker, D. R. (2002). The developmental psychopathology of social anxiety disorder. Biological Psychiatry, 51(1), 44–58. doi:10.1016/S0006-3223(01)01305-1.
Pina, A. A., Little, M., Wynne, H., & Beidel, D. C. (2014). Assessing social anxiety in African American youth using the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 42(2), 311–320. doi:10.1007/s10802-013-9775-3.
Rao, P. A., Beidel, D. C., Turner, S. M., Ammerman, R. T., Crosby, L. E., & Sallee, F. R. (2007). Social anxiety disorder in childhood and adolescence: descriptive psychopathology. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45(6), 1181–1191. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2006.07.015.
Rheingold, A. A. (2001). Cognitive bias in adolescents with social anxiety disorder (Order No. 3029674). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (304776632). Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/304776632?accountid=14542.
Rodriguez, A., Reise, S. P., & Haviland, M. G. (2015). Applying bifactor statistical indices in the evaluation of psychological measures. Journal of Personality Assessment. doi:10.1080/00223891.2015.1089249.
Salazar, I. C. (2013). Fiabilidad y validez de una nueva medida de autoinforme para la evaluación de la ansiedad/fobia social en adultos [Reliability and validity of a new self-report measure of social anxiety/phobia in adults] (Doctoral dissertation, University of Granada, Spain). Retrieved from: http://digibug.ugr.es/bitstream/10481/32112/1/23037349.pdf.
Sandín, B., Chorot, P., Valiente, R. M., Santed, M. A., & Sánchez-Arribas, C. (1999). Estructura factorial de la Escala de ansiedad social para niños-revisada (SASC-R) [Factor structure of Social Anxiety Scale for Children-Revised (SASC-R)]. Revista de Psicopatología y Psicología Clínica, 4(2), 105–113.
Institute, S. A. S. (2014). SAS (Version 9.4) [Computer program]. Cary: SAS Institute.
Scaini, S., Battaglia, M., Beidel, D. C., & Ogliari, A. (2013). A meta-analysis of the cross-cultural psychometric properties of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children (SPAI-C). Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 26(1), 182–188. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2011.11.002.
Scientific Software International. (2006). LISREL (Version 8.8) [Computer program]. Lincolnwood: Author.
Silverman, W. K., & Ollendick, T. H. (2008). Assessment of child and adolescent anxiety disorders. In J. Hunsley & E. Mash (Eds.), A guide to assessments that work (pp. 181–206). New York: Oxford University Press.
StatSoft, I. (2013). Statistica, v. 12 [computer program]. Tulsa: Author.
Storch, E. A., Eisenberg, P. S., Roberti, J. W., & Barlas, M. E. (2003). Reliability and validity of the Social Anxiety Scale for Children-Revised for Hispanic children. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 25(3), 410–422. doi:10.1177/0739986303256915.
Storch, E. A., Masia-Warner, C., Dent, H. C., Roberti, J. W., & Fisher, P. H. (2004). Psychometric evaluation of the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents and the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children: construct validity and normative data. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 18(5), 665–679. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2003.09.002.
Storch, E. A., Masia-Warner, C., Heidgerken, A. D., Fisher, P. H., Pincus, D. B., & Liebowitz, M. R. (2006). Factor structure of the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale for Children and Adolescents. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 37(1), 25–37. doi:10.1007/s10578-006-0017-6.
Vine, J. (2003). Social phobia in children and adolescents (Order No. C816074). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (305222633). Retrieved from: http://search.proquest.com/docview/305222633?accountid=14542.
Von Eye, A., & Mun, E. Y. (2005). Analyzing rater agreement: Manifest variable methods. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Watson, D., & Friend, R. (1969). Measurement of social-evaluative anxiety. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 33(4), 448–457. doi:10.1037/h0027806.
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 comorbidity. Psychological Medicine, 29(2), 309–323.
Zhao, J., Xing, X., & Wang, M. (2012). Psychometric properties of the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale (SCAS) in Mainland Chinese children and adolescents. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 26(7), 728–736. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2012.05.006.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Consortia
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Funding
This study was partially supported by Fundacion VECA for the Advancement of Clinical Behavioral Psychology (FUNVECA), and the manuscript’s translation was supported financially by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and by the regional government of Andalusia as part of the University of Granada’s program “Fortalecimiento de la I+D+i”
Informed Consent
Informed consent was obtained from schools and/or parents and/or primary caregivers of the experiment participants included in the study.
Conflict of Interest
Author Vicente E. Caballo declares that he has no conflict of interest
Author Isabel C. Salazar declares that she has no conflict of interest
Author Benito Arias declares that he has no conflict of interest
Author Marta Calderero declares that she has no conflict of interest
Author María J. Irurtia declares that she has no conflict of interest
Author Thomas H. Ollendick declares that he has no conflict of interest
Author Vicente E. Caballo (in name of CISO-A Research Team) declares that he has no conflict of interest
Experiment Participants
All procedures performed in this research were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Additional information
We gratefully appreciate the collaboration of all those participating in the studies from the various countries.
The CISO-A Research Team, co-author of this article, comprises the following researchers: Argentina: P. Colussa; Bolivia: C. Flores; Brasil: L. Brandani, N. Chiapetti, K. Fernandes, L. Lourenço, C. Rocha, L. Senra; Chile: S. Chesta, N. López, C. Vásquez, A. Veliz; Colombia: L. Aldaz, P. Amorocho, L. Aristizabal, A. Benavides, S. Betancourt, L. Buitrago, S. Cárdenas, F. Coconubo, Y. Cuspoca, P. Díaz, C. Echeverry, R. Escobar, L. Estupiñán, J. Forero, J. González, R. Higuera, D. Jurado, G. Martínez, M. Martínez, Z. Montenegro, M. Ortega, A. Ospina, M. Pérez, M. Perilla, B. Pinto, I. Puerta, H. Quintero, A. Rivera, D. Rodao, L. Rojas, Y. Romero, L. Ruiz, L. Santamaría, R. Santander, J. Taborda; Costa Rica: V. Gómez, J. Vindas; Ecuador: L. Ortega; El Salvador: A. Zúniga; España: R. Andreu, B. Bueno, V. de Haro; Honduras: R. Ardón; México: B. Barcelata, M. Bonilla, J. Caballero, D. Castillo, S. Estrada-Martínez, M. Freyre, J. Garay, L. Hernández, E. Lara, A. Lechuga, G. Leija, J. Lira, E. Maldona, G. Martínez, R. Martínez, S. Meave, A. Mendoza, A. Moysén, A. Porras, A. Rentería, B. Rossano, G. Ruiz, A. San Juan, M. Serrano, J. Servin, M. Silva, I. Stange, M. Villarruel, J. Virseda, B. Zalazar, M. Zarazua; Perú: A. Barreda, N. Beltrán, M. Calderón, Y. Candelario, K. Castillo, J. Cueva, M. Dorival, M. Huaynates, J. Maguiña, C. Merino, C. Segura, G. Tiburcio, A. Valdivia, J. Vallejos; Venezuela: C. Piña.
The first author of the manuscript is the Director of the research team and the person responsible for the CISO-A Research Team; he also holds all rights for this team.
Appendix
Appendix
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Caballo, V.E., Salazar, I.C., Arias, B. et al. The Social Anxiety Questionnaire for Children: Cross-Cultural Assessment with a New Self-Report Measure. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 38, 695–709 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-016-9562-x
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-016-9562-x