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Reliability and Validity of the Chinese Version of the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents

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Abstract

This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SAS-A) in a sample of 296 adolescents (49% boys) in Grades 7, 8, 9, 10, and 12 with a mean age of 15.52 years. Confirmatory factor analysis replicated the three-factor structure of the SAS-A in the Chinese sample: Fear of Negative Evaluation (FNE), Social Avoidance and Distress in New Situations (SAD-New), and Social Avoidance and Distress-General (SAD-General). Internal consistency and test-retest reliability were appropriate. The results also revealed a clear and predictable pattern of relationships between the SAS-A and the Questionnaire about Interpersonal Difficulties for Adolescents and the International Personality Item Pool. Chinese boys reported greater SAD-General than Chinese girls, and this difference increased with grade. The SAS-A scores were compared to previously collected data from the USA and Spain, revealing that Chinese adolescents scored significantly higher in social anxiety than American and Spanish adolescents.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported in part by grants from the Ministry of Education of China (No. 06JC840001), 985-2 Research Program of Sun Yat-Sen University (No. 90015-3272210), Shanghai Pujiang Program and Jinmiao Program of Fudan University (No. 06JM026).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China

    Xinyue Zhou

  2. Fudan University, Shanghai, China

    Xinyue Zhou & Qian Xu

  3. Miguel Hernández University, Elche, Spain

    Cándido J. Inglés

  4. University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain

    María D. Hidalgo

  5. University of Miami, Miami, USA

    Annette M. La Greca

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  1. Xinyue Zhou
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  2. Qian Xu
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  5. Annette M. La Greca
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Correspondence to Xinyue Zhou.

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Zhou, X., Xu, Q., Inglés, C.J. et al. Reliability and Validity of the Chinese Version of the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 39, 185–200 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-007-0079-0

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