Social Phobia Questionnaire in Adolescents: Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Structure

The aim of the present study is to determine the factor structure of "Social Phobia Scale» (SPIN) in non-clinical sample of Iranian adolescents. For this purpose, initially, by implementing measures on 311 male and female students in second and third of high school, which cluster sampling method were selected from five regions of the South, North, East, West, and Central Tehran, the factor structure of instruments were analyzed by using exploratory factor analysis. In this study, the SPIN was conceptualized in terms of four factors: fear and avoidance of criticism and embarrassment, fear of physical symptoms in interactive situations, fear and avoidance of strangers and authorities; and fear and avoidance of meetings and being center of attention. In the following, in order to examine the above structure, confirmatory factor analysis was used. The results indicated a good fit of factor structures 3, 4 and 5. While the indices of the four exploratory factor analysis of the present study was more desirable. Also, the last examination by using Cronbach's alpha method was indicator of good ending for 4 factors and the last examination by using the average correlation between items demonstrate good ending for all three models 3, 4 and 5. The results of the present study provide evidence for the validity of the factor structure of the SPIN in Iranian teenagers. Totally, the results of the present study provide evidence for the validity of the factor structure of the SPIN in Iranian teenagers.