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Brett, Simon G. 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2300-9396, den Houting, Jacquiline E., Black, Melissa H., Lawson, Lauren P., Trollor, Julian and Arnold, Samuel R. C.
(2024)
Suitability of the DSM-5 social anxiety disorder severity scale for autistic adults.
Autism.
ISSN 1362-3613
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Abstract
In autistic adults, measurement tools may not adequately differentiate between autistic characteristics and features of anxiety. This may be particularly evident in the case of social anxiety disorder; however, few measures of social anxiety disorder have been validated for autistic adults. Instead, assessments are often made using measures designed and validated for non-autistic adults. To address this, we examined the suitability of the self-report Severity Measure for Social Anxiety Disorder in 284 autistic adults. We evaluated its psychometric properties, explored a rescored version that aimed to account for autistic differences in reporting and conducted content analysis on qualitative feedback from autistic participants. Confirmatory Factor Analysis did not confirm the unidimensional structure of the Severity Measure for Social Anxiety Disorder for autistic adults and over half attributed at least one response to a factor other than social anxiety (e.g. fatigue). Exploratory Factor Analysis of a rescored version of the Severity Measure for Social Anxiety Disorder based on autistic adults’ responses to reflect those just due to social anxiety, revealed that a two-factor solution was most appropriate, again suggesting social anxiety was not a solitary latent variable. Our findings recommend caution be applied when using the Severity Measure for Social Anxiety Disorder with autistic adults and our content analysis may inform more precise future measurement.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | Data availability statement: Researchers can access the ALSAA databank through contacting the Autism CRC. Funding information: The authors acknowledge the financial support of the Cooperative Research Centre for Living with Autism (Autism CRC), established and supported under the Australian Government’s Cooperative Research Centres Programme. JT is supported by an NHMRC Leadership Fellowship GNT2009771. JdH was supported by a Macquarie University Research Fellowship award. |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | autism,content analysis,factor analysis,social anxiety,developmental and educational psychology ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3200/3204 |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 21 Dec 2024 01:11 |
| Last Modified: | 17 Jan 2025 01:06 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/98057 |
| DOI: | 10.1177/13623613241290547 |
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