Psychometric properties of the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale in a large cross-cultural Spanish and Portuguese speaking sample

Objective: To examine the psychometric properties of the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale-Self Report (LSAS-SR) based on a large sample recruited from 16 Latin American countries, Spain, and Portugal. Methods: Two groups of participants were included: a non-clinical sample involving 31,243 community subjects and a clinical sample comprising 529 patients with a diagnosis of social anxiety disorder (SAD). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) were used in order to determine the psychometric properties of the LSAS-SR. Results: EFA identified five factors with eigenvalues greater than 1.00 explaining 50.78% of the cumulative variance. CFA and ESEM supported this 5-factor structure of the LSAS-SR. The factors included: 1) speaking in public; 2) eating/drinking in front of other people; 3) assertive behaviors; 4) working/writing while being observed; and 5) interactions with strangers. Other psychometric properties such as interfactor correlations, invariance, reliability, and validity of the scale were also found. Conclusion: Psychometric data support the internal consistency and convergent validity of the LSASSR. It seems to be a valid and reliable measure of global social anxiety for Spanish and Portuguesespeaking countries, although when considering a multidimensional approach (factor-based assessment) it seems to be lacking some relevant social situations that are feared in those countries.This study was partially supported by a grant from Spain’s Ministry of Science and Technology (reference BSO2003- 07029/PSCE) and co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as well as by a grant awarded to the first author by the Spain’s Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport (reference PRX16/00223)