The psychometric properties of the Mini Social Phobia Inventory in a treatment seeking sample of children and their caregivers

The Mini Social Phobia Inventory (Mini-SPIN) is a short 3-item measure of social anxiety disorder (SAD). Using existing data, the current study examined the psychometric properties of the Mini-SPIN using a large, treatment seeking sample of children aged 6-16 years with data available for youth (<i>n</i> = 695, 170) and their caregivers (<i>n</i> = 703, 177) at pre-treatment and follow-up, respectively. The ability of the Mini-SPIN to discriminate between those with and without SAD was examined at pre-treatment and 6-month follow-up, across caregiver and child report. The criterion group validity, internal consistency and construct validity of the measure was also examined. Results revealed that at pre-treatment the Mini-SPIN demonstrated good discriminant validity in detecting cases of SAD from non-SAD (with cut-off of 4 on child report, and 6 on caregiver report). At 6-month follow-up, the discriminant ability of the Mini-SPIN was found to be less than acceptable for child reported scores, but acceptable for caregiver reported scores. The Mini-SPIN further demonstrated good criterion group validity, internal consistency and construct validity across caregiver and child report. Overall, the findings from the current study lend further support for the use of the Mini-SPIN as a screening tool for SAD.