Evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Social Phobia Inventory in university students.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of the study was to study the psychometric properties of the Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN) in its version for the context of Brazilian adults.


METHODS
A sample of Brazilian university students from the general population (n = 2314) and a sample of university students identified as cases (n = 88) and noncases (n = 90) of social phobia were assessed, using as a parameter the Structured Clinical Interview for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition. The different instruments were applied individually in the presence of a rater.


RESULTS
The SPIN showed adequate internal consistency (.63-.90) and concurrent validity with different instruments of auto- and hetero-evaluation of social phobia. Discriminative validity showed 0.84 to 0.86 sensitivity and 0.84 to 0.87 specificity for cutoff notes between 19 and 21. Factorial analysis showed the presence of a variable number of factors as a function of the different samples.


CONCLUSIONS
The version of the SPIN studied is quite adequate for use in the context of Brazilian university students, favoring the screening of social phobia. However, further studies using more diverse samples are needed.
Department of Neurosciences and Behavior, Medical School of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo, Brasil. flaliosorio@ig.com.br
Flávia L
FL
Osório
José Alexandre S
JA
Crippa
Sonia Regina
SR
Loureiro
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001938:Brazil; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D014175:Translating; D055815:Young Adult