Psychometric properties of the social anxiety subscale of the Youth Anxiety Measure for DSM-5 (YAM-5-I-SAD) in a clinical sample of Spanish-speaking adolescents.

BACKGROUND: The Youth Anxiety Measure-I for DSM-5 has recently been developed to assess youth's anxiety symptomatology. As social anxiety is one of the most common disorders in adolescence, this scale includes a subscale measuring social anxiety. However, psychometric properties of the YAM-5-I social anxiety subscale (YAM-5-I-SAD) in clinical samples are lacking. This paper aims to bridge the gap. METHODS: The sample comprised 24 clinically diagnosed and 24 healthy control Spanish-speaking adolescents aged 14-17 years. RESULTS: Data revealed that the YAM-5- I-SAD yielded excellent sensitivity, which makes it particularly useful as a screening tool to early detect socially anxious adolescents. In addition, the YAM-5-I-SAD evidenced good internal consistency and construct validity. LIMITATIONS: Data are limited to the social anxiety subscale. CONCLUSIONS: The YAM-5-I-SAD is a sensitive and specific measure to screen for adolescents with social anxiety.

Exploring the role of the DSM-5 performance-only specifier in adolescents with social anxiety disorder.

The DSM-5 social anxiety disorder section has recently added the performance-only specifier for individuals whose anxiety is limited to speaking or performing in public. The impact of the DSM-5 performance-only specifier remains a neglected area. The sample comprised 44 healthy controls and 50 adolescents with a clinical diagnosis of SAD (20% met criteria for the performance-only specifier). Findings revealed that adolescents with the specifier had a later age of onset; lower levels of depression, social anxiety symptomatology and clinical severity; and a lesser degree of comorbidity relative to adolescents with SAD but excluding the performance-only specifier. Specifiers only evidenced higher (cognitive) social anxiety symptomatology compared to healthy controls. Results of this study also suggested that the performance-only specifier may correspond to a mild form of social anxiety disorder. Data also revealed that SAD exists on a continuum of severity among healthy controls, specifier participants, and those with both interactional and performance fears, which is consistent with a dimensional structure for SAD. Finally, findings suggested a unique comorbid pattern for specifiers and those adolescents with SAD but excluding the performance-only specifier. The implications of these findings for the etiology, assessment, classification, and treatment of social anxiety in youth are discussed.

Psychometric properties of the Youth Anxiety Measure for DSM-5, Part I (YAM-5-I) in a community sample of Spanish-speaking adolescents.

BACKGROUND: Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental disorders in adolescence. There is a need for brief screening tools to identify adolescents at risk for anxiety disorders. The Youth Anxiety Measure for DSM-5 has been recently developed to assess youths' anxiety symptoms in terms of the current classification system. The goal of this study is to provide a first test of its psychometric properties in a community sample of adolescents in Spain. METHODS: The sample consisted of 505 13- to 17-year-old adolescents who completed Part I of the YAM-5 (YAM-5-I), which measures symptoms of the major anxiety disorders. RESULTS: Data indicated that the YAM-5-I displays appropriate internal consistency reliability. In addition, support was also found for the construct validity of the measure: most items loaded on a factor that represented the hypothesized anxiety syndromes, although it should also be noted that some items exhibited issues and therefore had to be discarded. LIMITATIONS: Cross-cultural and trans-national studies are needed to determine psychometric properties of scale across languages and cultures. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that the YAM-5-I has satisfactory psychometric properties, which indicates that it can be used as a screening tool in Spanish-speaking adolescents from the general population.