title: Two dimensions of social anxiety disorder: a pilot study of the Questionnaire for Social Anxiety and Social Competence Deficits for Adolescents.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Questionnaire for Social Anxiety and Social Competence Deficits for Adolescents (SASKO-J) was developed as an instrument for clinical diagnostics of social anxiety disorder in youths by measuring social anxiety and social deficits in two separate dimensions. The study provides an initial assessment of the scale's psychometric properties in a clinical sample.
  
  
  METHODS
  The reliability and validity of the SASKO-J were assessed in a mixed clinical sample of 12- to 19-year-old German adolescents (N = 85; mean age 15.71 years; SD = 1.92; 62.4 % girls). In a second step, the diagnostic validity was evaluated in a clinical sample of 31 adolescent patients with social anxiety disorder (mean age 16.10 years; SD = 1.54; 74.2 % girls) and a sample of 115 German high school students (mean age 15.84 years; SD = 1.65; 60.9 % girls) via Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The internal consistencies of the total scale and the subscales were good to excellent (0.80 ≤ α ≤ 0.96), and the results indicated a good convergent and divergent validity. The ROC analysis revealed a satisfying area under curve (AUC = 0.866), and a cutoff of 41.5 for the SASKO-J total score represented the best balance of sensitivity (0.806) and specificity (0.826).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of this pilot study provide initial support for the clinical use of the SASKO-J in the diagnostic process. Future research should address the question of psychometric properties in a social anxiety disorder sample as well as the questionnaire's sensitivity for detecting change in symptoms during therapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Georg-August-University of Göttingen, Gosslerstr. 14, 37073 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Carolin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fernandez Castelao
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Georg-August-University of Göttingen, Gosslerstr. 14, 37073 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Katharina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Naber
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Georg-August-University of Göttingen, Gosslerstr. 14, 37073 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Stefanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Altstädt
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Georg-August-University of Göttingen, Gosslerstr. 14, 37073 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Birgit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kröner-Herwig
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Georg-August-University of Göttingen, Gosslerstr. 14, 37073 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Uwe
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Ruhl
keywords: Adolescents; Clinical diagnostics; Questionnaire; Social anxiety; Social anxiety disorder; Social competence deficits