Factor Structure and Other Psychometric Properties of the Social Phobia Inventory in Korean Samples

ABSTRACT

We examined the factor structure and other psychometric properties of the Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN) in Korean nonclinical (N1 = 457, N2 = 444) and clinical undergraduate samples (N3 = 12). Results support the revised 3-factor structure and applicability of the SPIN as a measure yielding valid and reliable scores of social anxiety to Koreans.

KEYWORDS:

• Factor structure
• reliability
• social anxiety
• social phobia inventory
• validity

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Dr. J. R. T. Davidson for his help in comparing and examining the original SPIN and our backtranslated English versions. We also appreciate anonymous reviewers' helpful comments and suggestions. Portions of this paper were presented at the 8th International Congress of Cognitive Psychotherapy, Hong Kong, in June 2014.

Notes

1. Another five-factor model based on EFA results on the data from a sample of Japanese participants with SAD (Nagata, Nakajima, Teo, Yamada, & Yoshimura, 2013) was not presented in method and results sections of this text because the study had several limitations, as described in the introduction section. In addition, our results using CFA indicated that the five-factor model provided a poor fit: χ²(109) = 406.985,  p < .001; Tucker–Lewis index (TLI) =.832, comparative fit index (CFI) =.865, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) =.077 [.069,.085], standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) =.058 in Study 1; χ²(109) = 480.676, p < .001, TLI =.750, CFI =.799, RMSEA =.088 [080,.096], SRMR =.081 in Study 2.

2. Because testing convergent and discriminant validity is simply based on correlational analysis, it usually requires a smaller sample size than factor analysis. Thus we asked only some classes to complete the additional scales.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Hallym University Research Fund, 2014 (HRF-201401-004).

Notes on contributors

Yongrae Cho

Yongrae Cho is a Professor of Psychology at Hallym University, South Korea. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Clinical Psychology at Seoul National University.

Younghee Choi

Younghee Choi is a Director of the Mettaa Institute of Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Schema Therapy. He is a Psychiatrist and obtained his Ph.D. degree in Medicine at Inje University.

Sunyoung Kim

Sunyoung Kim is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Hawaii, Hilo. She obtained her Ph.D. degree in Clinical Psychology at Boston University.

Sehee Hong

Sehee Hong is a Professor of Education at Korea University. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Quantitative Psychology at The Ohio State University.