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
Brief Report

Optimal Cut-Off Score of Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory-Brief Form

Detecting DSM-5 Social Anxiety Disorder and Performance-Only Specifier

Published Online:April 29, 2016https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000324

Abstract

Abstract. No cut-off scores for the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory-Brief (SPAI-B) are available to screen for young adults with and without social anxiety disorder (SAD). In addition, there is a currently heated debate on the utility of the performance-only specifier in DSM-5. The present study is aimed at covering these gaps. Participants included 124 young adults in higher education with a clinical diagnosis of SAD and 81 healthy controls. The SPAI-B scores revealed a continuum of severity among the nonclinical population, performance-only specifier participants, and those with both performance and social interactional fears. Data suggested to use a rounded cut-off of 24 to screen for patients with both performance and interactional fears, and a rounded cut-off score of 23 for young adults with performance-only specifier. Findings demonstrated that the SPAI-B is particularly useful as a screening measure among young adults in higher education, but the limited discriminative capacity of the performance-only specifier may call into question the clinical utility of this recently established specifier.

References

  • American Psychiatric Association (APA) (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, TX: American Psychiatric Publishing. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Aderka, I. M., Nikerson, A. & Hofmann, S. G. (2012). Admixture analysis of the diagnostic subtypes of social anxiety disorder: Implications for the DSM-V. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 43, 752–757. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Bögels, S. M., Alden, L., Beidel, D. C., Clark, L. A., Pine, D. S., Stein, M. B. & Voncken, M. (2010). Social anxiety disorder: Questions and answers for the DSM-V. Depression and Anxiety, 27, 168–189. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Caballo, V. E., Salazar, I. C., Irurtia, M. J., Arias, B. & Hofmann, S. G. (2010). Measuring social anxiety in 11 countries: Development and validation of the Social Anxiety Questionnaire for Adults. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 26, 95–107. First citation in articleLink, Google Scholar

  • Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Crome, E., Grove, R., Baillie, A. J., Sunderland, M., Teesson, M. & Slade, T. (2015). DSM-IV and DSM-5 social anxiety disorder in the Australian community. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 49, 227–235. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • De Los Reyes, A., Bunnell, B. E. & Beidel, D. C. (2013). Informant discrepancies in adult social anxiety disorder assessments: Links with contextual variations in observed behavior. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 122, 376–386. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • DiNardo, P. A., Brown, T. A. & Barlow, D. H. (1994). Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for DSM-IV. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Eapen, V. & Črnčec, R. (2014). DSM 5 and child psychiatric disorders: What is new? What has changed? Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 11, 114–118. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Garcia-Lopez, L. J., De Los Reyes, A. & Salvador, M. C. (2015). Assessment of social anxiety in adolescents. In K. RantaA. M. La GrecaL. J. Garcia-LopezM. MarttunenEds., Social anxiety and phobia in adolescents: Development, manifestation and intervention strategies (pp. 121–150). Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Garcia-Lopez, L.J. & Moore, H.A. (2015). Validation and diagnostic efficiency of the Mini-SPIN in Spanish-speaking adolescents. PLoS One, 10, e0135862. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0135862 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Garcia-Lopez, L. J., Hidalgo, M. D., Beidel, D. C., Olivares, J. & Turner, S. (2008). Brief form of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory (SPAI-B) for Adolescents. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 24, 150–156. First citation in articleLink, Google Scholar

  • Garcia-Lopez, L. J., Sáez-Castillo, A. J., Beidel, D. C. & La Greca, A. M. (2015). Brief measures to screen for social anxiety in adolescents. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 36, 562–568. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Heimberg, R. G., Hofmann, S. G., Liebowitz, M. R., Schneier, F. R., Smits, J. A. J. & Craske, M. G. (2014). Social anxiety disorder in DSM-5. Depression and Anxiety, 31, 472–479. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Kerns, C. E., Comer, J. S., Pincus, D. B. & Hofmann, S. G. (2013). Evaluation of the proposed social anxiety disorder specifier change for DSM-5 in a treatment-seeking sample of anxious youth. Depression and Anxiety, 30, 709–715. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Lang, P. J. (1968). Fear reduction and fear behavior: Problems in treating a construct. In J. M. ShlienEd., Research in psychotherapy (Vol. 3, pp. 90–102). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Moore, T. A., Gomez-Ariza, C. J. & Garcia-Lopez, L. J. (2004). Stopping the past from intruding the present: Social anxiety disorder and proactive interference. Psychiatry Research, in press. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2016.02.053 First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Olivares, J., Garcia-Lopez, L. J., Hidalgo, M. D. & Caballo, V. E. 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

  • Piqueras, J. A., Espinosa-Fernandez, L., Garcia-Lopez, L. J. & Beidel, D. C. (2012). Validacion del Inventario de Ansiedad & Fobia Social-Forma Breve en jovenes adultos españoles. [SPAI-B in young adults]. Behavioral Psychology, 20, 505–528. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Ruscio, A. M. (2010). The latent structure of social anxiety disorder: Consequences of shifting to a dimensional diagnosis. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 119, 662–671. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Turner, S. M., Beidel, D. C., Dancu, C. V. & Standley, 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

  • Vieira, S., Salvador, C., Matos, A. P., Garcia-Lopez, L. J. & Beidel, D. C. (2013). Inventario de Fobia & Ansiedad Social-version Breve: Propiedades psicometricas en una muestra de adolescentes portugueses [SPAI-B in Portuguese adolescents]. Behavioral Psychology, 21, 25–38. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Weiss, B. J., Hope, D. A. & Capozzoli, M. C. (2013). Heterocentric language in commonly used measures of social anxiety: Recommended alternate wording. Behavior Therapy, 44, 1–11. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar