Social anxiety across ethnicity: A confirmatory factor analysis of the FNE and SAD

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Abstract

Previous research has established that social anxiety occurs at different rates in African American and European American populations (Grant et al., 2005), while psychometric investigations of widely used measures of psychopathology show differences in factor structure based on ethnic background (Carter et al., 1999, Chapman et al., 2009b). The current study examined response characteristics of 1276 African American and European American undergraduates completing the Fear of Negative Evaluation and Social Avoidance and Distress Scales (Watson & Friend, 1969). Confirmatory factor analyses failed to demonstrate factorial invariance in the two ethnic samples, and Wald tests suggested several items on both measures be dropped for African Americans. Results suggest the FNE and SAD operate differently across ethnic groups. Implications for the cross-cultural measurement of social anxiety and the importance of continued rigorous psychometric inquiry of commonly used measures are discussed.

Section snippets

Participants

A total of 1420 undergraduate students participated in the current study in order to receive class credit. The sample was ethnically diverse, with European Americans (n = 900), African Americans (n = 376), Latinos/as (n = 46), Asian Americans (n = 32), American Indians (n = 11), Pacific Islanders (n = 3), and those of other ethnic backgrounds (n = 52) represented. Gender ratios offered appropriate numbers of men (n = 656) and women (n = 763), with one participant not reporting their sex. Participants were 19.1

Results

Initial mean comparisons were conducted to identify any differences between the two ethnic groups for both of the measures. Though these analyses are not central to the current study's hypothesis, they are meaningful for later discussion of the properties of these measures and possible factors affecting the comparative study of social anxiety levels between ethnic groups. Results of these tests indicated that European Americans, M = 13.51, SD = 8.47, scored higher than African Americans, M = 10.56, SD

Discussion

The purpose of the present study was to examine the factor structure and fit of the FNE and the SAD in an African American and European American sample and to identify potential differences in structure across the two groups. As hypothesized both measures demonstrated different structures across ethnic groups following confirmatory factor analyses. Additionally, model fit improvements for the African American sample required the removal of a total of seven items across both instruments. When

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