title: Clinical validation of a non-heteronormative version of the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS).
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Despite welcomed changes in societal attitudes and practices towards sexual minorities, instances of heteronormativity can still be found within healthcare and research. The Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) is a valid and reliable self-rating scale of social anxiety, which includes one item (number 14) with an explicit heteronormative assumption about the respondent's sexual orientation. This heteronormative phrasing may confuse, insult or alienate sexual minority respondents. A clinically validated version of the SIAS featuring a non-heteronormative phrasing of item 14 is thus needed.
  
  
  METHODS
  129 participants with diagnosed social anxiety disorder, enrolled in an Internet-based intervention trial, were randomly assigned to responding to the SIAS featuring either the original or a novel non-heteronormative phrasing of item 14, and then answered the other item version. Within-subject, correlation between item versions was calculated and the two scores were statistically compared. The two items' correlations with the other SIAS items and other psychiatric rating scales were also statistically compared.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Item versions were highly correlated and scores did not differ statistically. The two items' correlations with other measures did not differ statistically either.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The SIAS can be revised with a non-heteronormative formulation of item 14 with psychometric equivalence on item and scale level. Implications for other psychiatric instruments with heteronormative phrasings are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska, Sweden. philip.lindner@ki.se.
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lindner
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Martell
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bergström
authors.forename: Gerhard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Andersson
authors.forename: Per
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Carlbring
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000592:standards*; D011594:Psychometrics; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D013548:Sweden