Latent dimensions of social anxiety disorder: A re-evaluation of the Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN).

The Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN) is a well-validated instrument for assessing severity of Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). However, evaluations of its factor structure have produced inconsistent results and this aspect of the scale requires further study. Primary care patients with SAD (N = 397) completed the SPIN as part of baseline assessment for the Coordinated Anxiety Learning and Management study. These data were used for exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis of the SPIN. A 3-factor model provided the best fit for the data and factors were interpreted as Fear of Negative Evaluation, Fear of Physical Symptoms, and Fear of Uncertainty in Social Situations. Tests of a second-order model showed that the three factors loaded strongly on a single higher-order factor presumed to reflect Social Anxiety. Findings are consistent with theories identifying fear of negative evaluation as the core feature of SAD, and with evidence that anxiety sensitivity and intolerance of uncertainty further contribute to SAD severity.

社交恐惧症量表（SPIN）是一种经过充分验证的用于评估社交焦虑障碍（SAD）严重程度的工具。然而，对其因子结构的评估产生了不一致的结果，该量表的这一方面需要进一步研究。患有社交焦虑障碍的初级保健患者（N = 397）完成了SPIN，作为协调焦虑学习与管理研究基线评估的一部分。这些数据被用于对SPIN进行探索性和验证性因子分析。一个三因子模型对数据的拟合度最佳，这些因子被解释为对负面评价的恐惧、对身体症状的恐惧以及对社交情境中不确定性的恐惧。对二阶模型的检验表明，这三个因子在一个假定反映社交焦虑的单一高阶因子上有很强的负荷。研究结果与将对负面评价的恐惧确定为社交焦虑障碍核心特征的理论一致，也与焦虑敏感性和对不确定性的耐受性进一步导致社交焦虑障碍严重程度的证据相符。