Structure, Validity and Cut-Off Scores for the APA Emerging Measure ofDSM-5 Social Anxiety Disorder Severity Scale (SAD-D)

Abstract

The APA Emerging measure the Social Anxiety Disorder Severity Scale (SAD-D) is recognized as the only social anxiety scale that is based on the DSM-5 criteria. This scale also addresses the limitations of other social anxiety measures as it is dimensional, time efficient and assesses a broad range of symptoms. However, research in community samples is needed, and no research to date has investigated the use of the SAD-D in an Australian sample. As such, this study examined the factor structure and validity of the SAD-D in an Australian non-clinical sample (N=999), and provides criterion cut off scores. The results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the scale assesses a unidimensional construct of social anxiety severity. Post-hoc analyses also suggested that the 10-item SAD-D scale could be shortened to a six-item scale. Both the original SAD-D-10 scale and the SAD-D-6 scale showed good internal consistency with alphas of 0.95 and 0.93, respectively. Both scales showed evidence of concurrent validity through statistically significant associations of social anxiety severity scores with general anxiety and fear of negative evaluation by others. A receiver operator characteristic curve analysis demonstrated that the SAD-D-10 and SAD-D-6 were significant predictors of fear of negative evaluation. This analysis also provided test cut-off scores that may be usefully applied in practice, and as a criterion cut-off score in research. The results of this research suggest that the SAD-D-10 scale and the new SAD-D-6 scale may have utility in both research and practice settings, as the only social anxiety measure that is based on the DSM-5 criteria and overcomes the limitations of other measures.