A comparison of two self-report measures of children's social anxiety in clinic and community samples

Abstract

Examined the relations between the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children (SPAI-C) and the Social Anxiety Scale for Children-Revised (SASC-R) in community (n = 178) and clinic (n = 57) samples. A large proportion of children exceeded the recommended SPAI-C and SASC-R cutoffs for suggesting clinically significant levels of social phobia and social anxiety in the community (37% SPAI-C and 20% SASC-R) and clinic (58% SPAI-C and 42% SASC-R) samples. A large proportion of children scoring in the clinical range on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) exceeded the SASC-R and SPAI-C cutoff scores; however, there was notable variability with respect to sample, age group (< or = 10 years and > or = 11 years), sex, and measure (SPAI-C vs. SASC-R, and CBCL Internalizing vs. Social Competence scale). Using the recommended cutoffs, discriminant function analyses found the classification correspondence between the SPAI-C and SASC-R was significant, with some variability found in the 2 samples, age groups, and sexes (ranging from 82% to 91% classification correspondence). These initial findings highlight a need to consider sample, age, and sex in further examination of the utility and validity of these measures and their recommended cutoffs. Implications for future work examining the linkages between social anxiety and social phobia, as well as for the assessment of children's social anxiety and social fears, are discussed.