A psychometric evaluation of the Severity Measure for Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD-DY) in Australian adolescents

Background: Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is the most common psychiatric disorder of adolescence and appears to be increasing in prevalence. Early detection can reduce negative outcomes. The Severity Measure for Social Anxiety Disorder-Child 11–17 (SAD-DY) was the first youth social anxiety measure developed based on the DSM-5, however, psychometric evaluation is needed.

Method: A community sample of 315 Australian adolescents aged 11 to 17years was surveyed online. Participants completed the SAD-DY, along with measures of convergent and discriminant validity.

Results: The measure was found to have good internal consistency, concurrent validity, and discriminant validity. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) suggested a unidimensional construct, with the model supported in a subsequent confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Post-hoc analysis suggested a briefer, more parsimonious scale could be developed that retained strong psychometric properties, and this reduced-item scale was termed the SAD-DY6. A receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis provided a criterion cut-off value of 14 for the 10-item measure, and a criterion cut-off of 9 for the 6-item version.

Conclusions: These results provide psychometric support for the use of the SAD-DY and SAD-DY6. Criterion cut-off scores determined for the first time enhance utility of the measures in both research and practice.