A Systematic Review of the Psychometric Properties of Trait Social Anxiety Self-Report Measures

Since the inclusion of social anxiety disorder in DSM-III, a number of self-report measures have been developed in order to detect and measure aspects of trait social anxiety. The present systematic review examined evidence supporting the psychometric properties of trait social anxiety self-report measures. Relevant studies were identified via a comprehensive detailed systematic search of academic databases. The psychometric properties reported in the included studies were subjected to an appraisal of their adequacy using an established quality assessment tool. Of the 3172 studies identified, 72 studies met the inclusion criteria. Included studies indicated that a number of measures had evidence of some adequate psychometric properties, though none demonstrated criteria for all relevant psychometric properties according to the appraisal of adequacy tool utilised in this study. Overall the findings demonstrate that further research is needed to establish the psychometric properties of trait social anxiety self-report measures before their results can be interpreted as robust indices of this important construct.