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Child Youth Care Forum (2012) 41:547559
DOI 10.1007/s10566-012-9181-y
ORIGINAL PAPER
Sarah A. Thomas Samantha E. Daruwala Katherine A. Goepel
Andres De Los Reyes
Published online: 20 April 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012
Abstract
Background Individuals with social anxiety use safety behaviors to directly or indirectly avoid social situations (e.g., remaining quiet in a social setting to avoid saying anything embarrassing). Safety behaviors have been hypothesized to prevent the disconrmation of feared occurrences while in social situations. Further, research indicates that use of safety behaviors garners negative reactions from others while in social situations, indicating a link between such behaviors and social skills decits.
Objective In light of the focus on addressing social skill decits in current evidence-based treatments for adolescent social anxiety, we examined whether a measure for assessing safety behaviors in adults [Subtle Avoidance Frequency Examination (SAFE; Cuming et al. in J Anxiety Disord 23(7):879883 2009)] could be used reliably and validly in adolescent assessments.
Methods Participants were 40 adolescents (total sample: age range 1417 years; 14 boys and 26 girls; M = 15.15 years; SD = 0.97) allocated into age- and gender-matched groups in terms of whether they were (n = 20) or were not (n = 20) clinic referred for a social anxiety assessment.
Results Results demonstrate that the SAFE (a) has adequate internal consistency;(b) relates positively and uniquely to a widely used measure of adolescent social anxiety, when considering measures of other distinct psychopathology domains; and (c) differentiates clinic referred from community control adolescents.
Conclusions These ndings indicate that the SAFE can be reliably and validly administered in adolescent social anxiety assessments and thus have implications for improvements in treatment monitoring and the study of mechanisms of change for adolescent social anxiety treatments.
S. A. Thomas S. E. Daruwala K. A. Goepel A. De Los Reyes (&)
Comprehensive Assessment and Intervention Program, Department of Psychology, University of Maryland at College Park, Biology/Psychology Building, College Park, MD 20742, USAe-mail: [email protected]
Using the Subtle Avoidance Frequency Examination in Adolescent Social Anxiety Assessments
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548 Child Youth Care Forum (2012) 41:547559
Keywords Adolescents Safety seeking behavior Social anxiety Subtle Avoidance
Frequency Examination
Social anxiety is characterized by a fear of evaluation or embarrassment in social or performance situations (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of...