Assessment of childhood social phobia: Construct, convergent, and discriminative validity of the Social Phobia and Anxiety inventory for Children (SPA-C).

Abstract

The Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children (SPAI—C) has shown initial promise to assess childhood social fears. In this study, convergent validity was determined by comparing scores on the SPAI—C to daily diary ratings of social distress. Social phobic children scored significantly higher on the SPAI—C, reported more distressing events, and rated these events as more distressful when compared with normal peers. A positive relationship was found between SPAI—C scores and daily diary ratings. Discriminative validity was determined by comparing SPAI—C scores of social phobic children with normal controls and children with externalizing disorders. The SPAI—C successfully differentiated children with social phobia from those with externalizing disorders or no disorder. Finally, internal consistency and factor analytic outcome data are presented. Results are discussed in terms of the SPAI—C's usefulness as a clinical and research tool.