Validity and reliability of the social phobia safety behaviour scale in social anxiety

Abstract

CONTEXT: The use of safety behaviours stresses the cognitive failure and tends to distort the evaluation of interpersonal experiences. OBJECTIVE: To assess the reliability of the self-administered Social Phobia Safety Behaviors Scale (ECSAS in the Portuguese acronym) in order to determine the association of social anxiety disorder (SAD) with processes related to safety behaviors. METHOD: A total of 155 university students of both genders with no previous history of psychiatric treatment, divided into two groups (80 cases and 75 non-cases of SAD), were systematically assessed using the Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN) and the Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-IV (SCID-IV) for diagnostic confirmation and for the exclusion of other psychiatric disorders. RESULTS: The internal consistency of the ECSAS measured by the Cronbach alpha was 0.92, and, based on the test-retest method separated by a two-week interval, it reached satisfactory levels of temporal stability, with a weighted Kappa of 0.73. Regarding discriminant validity, the ECSAS had 0.963 sensitivity and 1 specificity. Regarding convergent validity, it presented a correlation (r) of 0.60. CONCLUSION: The ECSAS presented good psychometric indicators, contributing to a systematic assessment of the safety and avoidance behaviors associated with SAD.