Psychometric Properties of the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale in a Longitudinal Study of Latinos With Anxiety Disorders

Abstract

The Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS) is one of the most commonly used measures of social anxiety symptoms. To date, no study has examined its psychometric properties in a Latino sample. The authors examined the reliability, temporal stability, and convergent validity of the LSAS in 73 Latinos diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. The original LSAS subscales showed excellent internal consistency and temporal stability over a 1-year period. Participants with social anxiety disorder (SAD) scored significantly higher on all LSAS subscales than participants without SAD, supporting the convergent validity of the LSAS. Similar results were obtained for four subscales proposed by Safren and colleagues. Results have implications for the use of the LSAS as a measure of severity or outcome when comparing diverse populations. Future investigations in larger Latino samples are needed to examine the factor structure of the LSAS.