The social phobia and anxiety inventory: First results of the reliability and structural validity in chilean adolescents

Abstract

In this report we examined the reliability and structural validity of the Chilean version of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory, SPAI, (Turner, Beidel, Dancu & Stanley, 1989), using a sample of 1040 non clinical Chilean adolescents (range of age between 13 and 18 years). The structural validity analysis indicated the existence of two, clearly differentiated, subscales (Social Phobia and Agoraphobia) that explained 43.4% of the variance. The alpha reliability coefficients were very high in each one of the subscales. In spite of finding significant differences, for sex in both scales, the effect size was small. On the other hand, the age variable was significant in the social phobia scale but not in the agoraphobia one, but again the effect size was small. In general the results offer empirical evidence in support of the reliability and validity of the Chilean version of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory. © Universitas Psychologica Universidad Javeriana 2010.