The validity of the brief version of the Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale

doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2004.02.003

Journal of Anxiety Disorders

Volume 19, Issue 3, 2005, Pages 345-359

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2004.02.003 Get rights and content

Abstract

The Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale [FNE; J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 33 (1969) 448] is a commonly used measure of social anxiety. A brief version of the scale (FNEB) is available for convenient administration. Despite being widely advocated for use, the psychometric properties of the FNEB have not been evaluated with clinically anxious samples. The present study addressed the reliability and validity of the FNEB in a clinical sample of individuals with either social phobia (n=82) or panic disorder (n=99) presenting for treatment. Factor analysis supported the construct validity of the FNEB. The validity of the FNEB was further demonstrated through significant correlations with social avoidance and depression, and non-significant correlations with agoraphobic avoidance and demographic variables. The scale obtained excellent inter-item reliability (α=.97) and 2-week test-retest reliability (r=.94). Discriminant function analysis also supported validity of the FNEB. For example, individuals with social phobia scored significantly higher on the FNEB than those with panic disorder and a group of non-psychiatric community controls (n=30). The FNEB was sensitive to pre- to post-CBT changes in both social anxiety and panic disorder, and changes on the FNEB correlated significantly with other measures of treatment responsiveness, such as reductions in somatic arousal, depression and other anxiety symptomatology. These research findings strongly support the validity of the FNEB and its clinical utility as an outcome measure in social anxiety treatment.

Section snippets

The Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (FNE)

Watson and Friend (1969) developed the FNE concurrently with the Social Avoidance and Distress Scale (SAD) to assess individuals’ experience of distress and discomfort in interpersonal interactions. The SAD was designed to measure the experience of distress in and resultant avoidance of social situations, whereas the FNE was developed to measure apprehension about negative evaluation (Ammerman, 1988). Watson and Friend (1969) defined fear of negative evaluation as “apprehension about others’

The brief version of FNE

Leary (1983a) developed a brief version of FNE (FNEB) that is convenient for quick and repeated administrations. On this questionnaire, respondents rate the degree to which each of 12 statements applies to them on a 5-point Likert scale (1=not at all characteristic of me; 5=extremely characteristic of me). Total scores range from 12 to 60. The items selected for inclusion in the FNEB had satisfactory item-total correlations with the original scale, ranging from .43 to .75 (Leary, 1983a). The

Present study

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the FNEB in a clinically anxious sample. Consistent with criticisms of reverse-keyed items as confusing (e.g., double-negatives) and potentially decreasing scale validity by introducing method variance (e.g., Marsh, 1996, Rodebaugh et al., in press), the four reverse-keyed items of the scale were reworded slightly (see Section 4.2 for details) to render all items positively keyed. The inter-item reliability and validity of

Participants

One hundred and eighty-one participants (117 females and 64 males) who completed a group CBT program for anxiety management participated in the study. The participants were recruited from an anxiety and affective disorder clinic of a large teaching hospital in Canada. Individuals were selected for inclusion in the study based on Structured Clinical Interviews for Diagnosis—Version IV (Spitzer, Williams, & Gibbon, 1994). Eighty-two individuals met DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association, 1994)

Factorial validity

A principal components factor analysis of the FNEB was performed on a subset of the original sample for whom item data were available (n=107). Forty-three individuals met diagnostic criteria for social phobia and 45 met criteria for panic disorder, and 19 participants had comorbid panic disorder and social phobia (70 females and 37 males). There were no systematic differences on symptom or sociodemographic variables between those individuals for whom item data were retrievable and those

Discussion

Results of this study strongly supported the psychometric properties of the FNEB in a clinically anxious sample of individuals presenting for treatment. Significant correlations were obtained between the FNEB and the Social Avoidance subscale of FQ. This finding is consistent with previous research demonstrating a positive relationship between the FNEB and FNE scales with measures of social anxiety (Corcoran & Fischer, 2000; Leary, 1983b), and provides preliminary evidence for the construct

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The validity of the brief version of the Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale

Abstract

Section snippets

The Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (FNE)

The brief version of FNE

Present study

Participants

Factorial validity

Discussion

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Journal of Anxiety Disorders

Journal of Anxiety Disorders

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Behavior Research and Therapy

Clinical Psychology Review

Behavior Therapy

Journal of Anxiety Disorders

Journal of Anxiety Disorders

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Behavior Research and Therapy

An inventory for measuring clinical anxiety: psychometric properties

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

A comparison of social phobia outcome measures in cognitive-behavioral group therapy

Behavior Modification

Value of the Fear Questionnaire in differentiating agoraphobia and social phobia

British Journal of Psychiatry