Citation

Pechorro P, Ayala-Nunes L, Nunes C, Maroco J, GonÇalves RA. Child Psychiatry Hum. Dev. 2016; 47(6): 975-984.

Affiliation

School of Psychology, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057, Braga, Portugal. rabrunhosa@psi.uminho.pt.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s10578-016-0627-6

PMID

26797703

Abstract

Over the last decades there has been an increased interest in assessing social anxiety in adolescents. This study aims to validate the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SAS-A) to Portuguese youth, and to examine its invariance across gender as well as its psychometric properties. The participants were 782 Portuguese youths (371 males, 411 females), with an average age of 15.87 years (SD = 1.72). The results support the original three-factor structure of the SAS-A, with measurement invariance being found across gender, with females scoring higher than males on two subscales. High levels of internal consistency were found. Positive associations with empathy demonstrated that high socially anxious adolescents have elevated empathy tendencies. Mostly null or low negative associations were found with measures of psychopathic traits, callous-unemotional traits and aggression. Study findings provide evidence that the SAS-A is a psychometrically sound instrument that shows measurement invariance between genders, good reliability and positive correlations with empathy.

Language: en