Convergent, incremental, and criterion‐related validity of multi‐informant assessments of adolescents' fears of negative and positive evaluation

Abstract

Adolescents who experience social anxiety tend to hold fears about negative evaluations (e.g., taunting) and may also hold fears about positive evaluations (e.g., praise from a teacher). The Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation (BFNE) scale and Fear of Positive Evaluation Scale (FPES) are 2 widely used measures of adults' evaluative concerns. Yet we know little about their psychometric properties when assessing adolescents. In a mixed clinical/community sample of 96 adolescents (66.7% female; M = 14.50 years, SD = 0.50; 63.3% African American), we examined both self-report and parent report versions of the BFNE and FPES. Adolescents and parents also provided reports about adolescents on survey measures of social anxiety and depressive symptoms. Adolescents participated in multiple social interactions in which they self-reported their state arousal before and during the tasks. Adolescent and parent BFNE and FPES reports distinguished adolescents who displayed elevated social anxiety from those who did not. Both informants' reports related to survey measures of adolescent social anxiety, when accounting for domains that commonly co-occur with social anxiety (i.e., depressive symptoms). Further, both the BFNE and FPES displayed incremental validity in relation to survey measures of adolescent social anxiety, relative to each other. However, only adolescents' BFNE and FPES reports predicted adolescents' self-reported arousal within social interactions, and only adolescents' FPES displayed incremental validity in predicting self-reported arousal, relative to their BFNE. Adolescent and parent BFNE and FPES reports display convergent validity and in some cases incremental and criterion-related validity. These findings have important implications for evidence-based assessments of adolescents' evaluative concerns.

Integrating Multiple Informants’ Reports: How Conceptual and Measurement Models May Address Long-Standing Problems in Clinical Decision-Making

“…Unfamiliar peer confederates were masked to adolescents’ clinical information, including referral status, and had no prior interaction with adolescents. Adolescents’ reactions when interacting with these unfamiliar peer confederates predict their reactions when interacting with same-age peers in independent tasks (Karp et al, 2018).…”

Malaise with praise: A narrative review of 10 years of research on the concept of Fear of Positive Evaluation in social anxiety

“…The FPES has also been successfully administered in adolescents (Karp et al., ; Lipton, Augenstein, Weeks, & De Los Reyes, ; Vagos et al., ). While in the study by Vagos et al.…”

“…() and Karp et al. () included parents’ reports of a clinic‐referred sample as well. Interestingly, the correspondence between the adolescent–parent dyads in FPES scores was low, possibly due to the different social contexts observed (e.g., school context is not available to parents).…”

“…() removed item 3 (“I try to choose clothes that will give people little impression of what I am like”) as autonomy in dressing style may vary by age. Results showed acceptable to good internal consistency ( α = 0.70–0.87), a two‐factor solution of FPE and FNE, convergent validity within informant (e.g., adolescents’ report of FPE positively related to adolescents’ report of social anxiety), criterion‐related validity within informant (e.g., adolescents’ report of FPE/FNE contributed significantly to state anxiety during social interactions), and a significant, unique contribution of FPES scores to social anxiety, avoidance, and safety‐seeking behaviors (Karp et al., ; Lipton et al., ; Vagos et al., ). Despite a low correspondence of parent and adolescent's FPES scores, both versions validly predicted adolescents’ reports of social anxiety and safety‐seeking behavior (Lipton et al., ).…”

“…The FPES has also been successfully administered in adolescents (Karp et al, 2017;Lipton, Augenstein, Weeks, & De Los Reyes, 2014;Vagos et al, 2016). While in the study by Vagos et al (2016) the FPES was solely administered to the adolescent students, Lipton et al (2014) and Karp et al (2017) included parents' reports of a clinicreferred sample as well. Interestingly, the correspondence between the adolescent-parent dyads in FPES scores was low, possibly due to the different social contexts observed (e.g., school context is not available to parents).…”