Identifying Analogue Samples of Individuals with Clinically Significant Social Anxiety: Updating and Combining Cutoff Scores on the Social Phobia Inventory and Sheehan Disability Scale
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Date
2024-07-26
Authors
Kudryk, Sophie
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of Waterloo
Abstract
The use of analogue samples, as opposed to clinical groups, is common in mental health
research, including research on social anxiety disorder (SAD). Recent observational and
statistical evidence has raised doubts about the validity of current methods for establishing
analogue samples of individuals with clinically significant social anxiety. Here, we used data
from large community samples of clinical and non-clinical participants to determine new cutoff
scores of 34 on the Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN), a validated self-report measure of social
anxiety symptoms, and a new cutoff score of 11 on the Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS), a
validated self-report measure of social anxiety symptom-related impairment. We then examined
whether using these newly determined cutoff scores alone or in combination improves the
identification of individuals who have SAD from those who do not, revealing intriguing trade-
offs in sensitivity and specificity and clear recommendations for the use of the new cutoff scores
in combination with one another to facilitate future research. Finally, we compared the effects of
our new cutoff scores with the original cutoff scores currently used in research on social anxiety
by extracting analogue samples of participants with high social anxiety from historical data on
seven large groups of undergraduate Psychology research participants from the University of
Waterloo spanning the past five years (2018–2023). We observed that the new combined cutoff
scores identified markedly fewer students as having high social anxiety, lending credibility to
their validity and utility. We also observed a striking increase in levels of social anxiety
symptoms in the undergraduate population from before to after the COVID-19 pandemic. Of
note, most participants were under 30 and identified as Caucasian or Asian women, indicating
that future research is needed to examine whether our findings generalize to diverse populations.
Implications and future directions for social anxiety research are discussed.
Description
Keywords
analogue samples, social anxiety, cutoff scores, validity, clinical research