Social anxiety disorder and social skills: a psychometric and empirical study / Transtorno de ansiedade social e habilidades sociais: estudo psicométrico e empírico

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2009

RESUMO

Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) has been considered a serious mental health problem for its high prevalence in young people and for the resulting disabilities in the performance and social interactions. It stands out, thus, as being fundamental to have comprehensive and validated instruments which evaluate both the resources and the social and functional impairments of these people. In this work, we aimed at verifying the associations between the behavioral and clinical manifestations of SAD by means of two studies, a psychometric study and an empirical one, in order to: (a) check the psychometric properties of the Social Skills Inventory (HIS-Del-Prette), as a measure of the social skills behavioral repertoire in relation to the evaluation of the typical clinical manifestations of SAD, measured by the Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN); (b) compare and characterize the social skills repertoire shown by Brazilian undergraduates with and without SAD in a structured experimental situation, the Simulated Public Speaking Test (SPST). A total of 1006 undergraduates of both genders participated in the psychometric study, with ages between 17 and 35, from two universities. Subsequently, 86 participants were randomly selected from this initial sample and grouped as SAD case and non-case from the systematic clinical evaluation. In the empirical outline, 26 undergraduates participated, 13 with a SAD diagnosis and 13 without the disorder. According to the results, IHS showed good internal consistency for the total score, reinforcing its construct validity. Good concurrent validity was demonstrated between IHS and SPIN, with a highly significant negative correlation coefficient between them, indicating that the more elaborate the social skills repertoire of an individual is, the smaller the probability that he or she will meet the screening criteria for the indicators of SAD. IHS proved to significantly distinguish individuals with and without SAD, attesting thus, discriminative and predictive validity for this diagnosis, showing its clinical validity for the diagnosis of this disorder and yet the possibility of using it in empirical studies testing the therapeutical efficacy in programs of intervention. In the SPST, the case and non-case groups of SAD did not show significant differences in terms of frequency for most of the social anxiety markers, except in relation to facial movements of discomfort, and the class of non-verbal markers, in which the non-case group presented higher values. A higher number of individuals from this group were evaluated as showing a level of appropriate social skills for speaking in public which varied from moderate to high, in comparison with the other group. Throughout SPST, the frequency of emission of anxiety behavioral markers by the participants of both groups was stable. The groups differed significantly in most items of IHS indicative of abilities to speak in public, as well as in the general score of this ability. The analysis of the results of the empirical study points to the necessity of new studies with clinical samples of individuals with SAD of the generalized and circumscribed subtypes and non-clinical, with a larger number of participants, previously evaluated as to the fear of speaking in public, and also to the possibility of using SPST in Social Skills Training.

ASSUNTO(S)

public speaking social anxiety disorder escalas. social skills scales. validity validade transtorno de ansiedade social falar em público habilidades sociais

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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