Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SAS-A): Measuring Social Anxiety Among Finnish Adolescents

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate symptoms of social anxiety and the psychometric properties of the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SAS-A) among Finnish adolescents, 13-16 years of age. Study 1 (n = 867) examined the distribution of SAS-A scores according to gender and age, and the internal consistency and factor structure of the SAS-A. In a subsample (n = 563; Study 2) concurrent and discriminant validity of the SAS-A were examined relative to the Social Phobia Inventory and the Beck Depression Inventory. Test-retest stability was examined over a 30-month period by repeated measures every 6 months in another subsample (n = 377; Study 3). Results mostly revealed no gender differences in social anxiety, except that boys reported more general social avoidance and distress than girls. Older adolescents (14-16-year-olds) reported higher social anxiety than younger adolescents (12-13-year-olds). Internal consistency for the SAS-A was acceptable for both genders and for all three SAS-A subscales. Confirmatory factor analysis replicated the original 18-item three-factor structure of the SAS-A, accounting for 61% of the variance between items. Evidence for concurrent and discriminant validity was found. Test-retest stability over 6 months was satisfactory. Results support the reliability and validity of the Finnish adaptation of the SAS-A, and further indicate that gender differences in adolescents' social anxiety may vary across Western countries.

Gender Differences in Social Anxiety Symptoms: A novel use of two self-report measures in a Finnish Sample

“…Consistent with studies conducted in Spain [48] and the USA [35], we detected a statistically significant gender difference for the fear of negative evaluation; however, these results were contrary to findings by Koydemir and Demir in Turkey [37,49]. Our findings are similar to previous research suggesting that behavioural avoidance may be a more common SA symptom in males than in females [29,50]. Interestingly, despite an increase in behavioral avoidance for males, as noted earlier, males are more likely, in general, to seek clinical intervention for their SA symptoms.…”

The Social Appearance Anxiety Scale in Italian Adolescent Populations: Construct Validation and Group Discrimination in Community and Clinical Eating Disorders Samples

“…Although, to our knowledge, no research has analysed the role of gender and age in the specific fear of judgment based on appearance (SAA) in adult or adolescent samples, the gender and age differences across adolescents found in this research converged with a large body of research indicating that in general terms body and overall appearance concerns, social fears and particularly negative evaluation fears, and social anxiety are more salient from mid-adolescence onwards and across female participants [26,27,32,34,37,47,62,69]. Developmental explanations for higher levels of SAA occurring in older adolescents include strong emotional investment in peers and the increasing pressures of the peer group [32,33,35].…”

“…While research has long documented strong inter-relationships between social avoidance and distress and fear of negative evaluation, among community adolescents [34,37,69], our adolescent community data provided evidence that the SAAS is also strongly correlated with the above variables. These results may suggest that adolescents who are afraid of appearance-related evaluation not only experience social inhibition, distress, and discomfort in social situations or with unfamiliar people, but also behave in an avoidant way in social relationships in order to prevent potential negative evaluations [21,24].…”

Differences in social anxiety between men and women across 18 countries

“…Results with children and adolescents from the general population do not paint a clearer picture; some studies report significantly higher scores on social anxiety for girls than for boys (e.g., Caballo, Arias, et al, 2012), whereas other studies show significantly higher scores for boys than for girls (e.g., Cakin Memik et al, 2010), or no sex differences (e.g., Ranta et al, 2012). …”