The Multidimensional Nature and Multicultural Validity of a New Measure of Social Anxiety: The Social Anxiety Questionnaire for Adults

Much has been written about the situations most often feared by persons with social phobia, and several self-report measures are frequently used to assess such feared situations. However, it is not clear whether the situations feared by persons with social phobia form unidimensional or multidimensional factors. If these situations are multidimensional, reliance on a total score of feared situations would not reflect important differences between those dimensions. This research examined the multidimensional nature and multicultural validity of a newly developed instrument (the Social Anxiety Questionnaire for Adults [SAQ-A]) in two studies with a total of 539 patients diagnosed with social phobia and 15,753 nonpatients from 20 different countries. The structure (five clear and solid factors) and psychometric properties of the final instrument (the SAQ-A30) support the multidimensional nature of social anxiety and provide a new perspective in the assessment of social phobia.

► New questionnaire for the assessment of social phobia/anxiety. ► Developed and validated for most Latin American countries, Spain and Portugal. ► Supporting the multidimensionality of social phobia (five solid dimensions). ► Providing cutoff scores for social phobia in men and women. ► A new way to address generalized and nongeneralized social phobia.