Quincy J J Wong1, Junwen Chen2, Bree Gregory3, Andrew J Baillie4, Toshihiko Nagata5, Toshiaki A Furukawa6, Hisanobu Kaiya7, Lorna Peters8, Ronald M Rapee8. 1. Centre for Emotional Health, Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia; School of Social Sciences and Psychology, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia. Electronic address: q.wong@westernsydney.edu.au. 2. School of Psychology, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia. 3. School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia. 4. Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia. 5. Mental Health Clinic of Dr. Nagata in Nanba, Osaka, Japan. 6. Department of Health Promotion and Human Behavior and Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine / School of Public Health, Kyoto, Japan. 7. Akasaka Clinic for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychiatry, Medical Corporation Warakukai, Tokyo, Japan. 8. Centre for Emotional Health, Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Cultural factors influence both the expression of social anxiety and the interpretation and functioning of social anxiety measures. This study aimed to test the measurement equivalence of two commonly used social anxiety measures across two sociocultural contexts using individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) from Australia and Japan. METHODS: Scores on the straightforwardly-worded Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (S-SIAS) and the Social Phobia Scale (SPS) from two archival datasets of individual with SAD, one from Australia (n = 201) and one from Japan (n = 295), were analysed for measurement equivalence using a multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) framework. RESULTS: The best-fitting factor models for the S-SIAS and SPS were not found to be measurement equivalent across the Australian and Japanese samples. Instead, only a subset of items was invariant. When this subset of invariant items was used to compare social anxiety symptoms across the Australian and Japanese samples, Japanese participants reported lower levels of fear of attracting attention, and similar levels of fear of overt evaluation, and social interaction anxiety, relative to Australian participants. LIMITATIONS: We only analysed the measurement equivalence of two social anxiety measures using a specific operationalisation of culture. Future studies will need to examine the measurement equivalence of other measures of social anxiety across other operationalisations of culture. CONCLUSIONS: When comparing social anxiety symptoms across Australian and Japanese cultures, only scores from measurement equivalent items of social anxiety measures should be used. Our study highlights the importance of culturally-informed assessment in SAD.
BACKGROUND: Cultural factors influence both the expression of social anxiety and the interpretation and functioning of social anxiety measures. This study aimed to test the measurement equivalence of two commonly used social anxiety measures across two sociocultural contexts using individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) from Australia and Japan. METHODS: Scores on the straightforwardly-worded Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (S-SIAS) and the Social Phobia Scale (SPS) from two archival datasets of individual with SAD, one from Australia (n = 201) and one from Japan (n = 295), were analysed for measurement equivalence using a multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) framework. RESULTS: The best-fitting factor models for the S-SIAS and SPS were not found to be measurement equivalent across the Australian and Japanese samples. Instead, only a subset of items was invariant. When this subset of invariant items was used to compare social anxiety symptoms across the Australian and Japanese samples, Japanese participants reported lower levels of fear of attracting attention, and similar levels of fear of overt evaluation, and social interaction anxiety, relative to Australian participants. LIMITATIONS: We only analysed the measurement equivalence of two social anxiety measures using a specific operationalisation of culture. Future studies will need to examine the measurement equivalence of other measures of social anxiety across other operationalisations of culture. CONCLUSIONS: When comparing social anxiety symptoms across Australian and Japanese cultures, only scores from measurement equivalent items of social anxiety measures should be used. Our study highlights the importance of culturally-informed assessment in SAD.