Assessing the Straightforwardly-Worded Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale for Differential Item Functioning Across Gender and Ethnicity

Re-assessing the assessment of fears of positive and negative evaluation: Scale development and psychometric evaluation of the Bivalent Fear of Evaluation Scale (BFOES)

The bivalent fear of evaluation (BFOE) model of social anxiety divides fear of evaluation into two distinct valences: fear of positive evaluation (FPE) and fear of negative evaluation (FNE). However, there is evidence that the two most widely utilized and psychometrically supported measures of FNE and FPE contain items which are ambiguous with regard to valence of evaluative fear. To formally address this, the BFOE Scale (BFOES) was developed, by merging items from measures of FNE and FPE into a single scale with an integrated response format. The present studies examined the psychometric profile of the BFOES across a large pooled archival dataset (N = 2216), which included approximately 10 % (n = 224) patients with social anxiety disorder (SAD). The factorial validity, internal consistency, and construct validity of the BFOES were examined. Additionally, item response theory analyses were employed for the purpose of merging items from self-report scales which utilized different Likert-type response formats. Results from both studies provided support for the psychometric profile of the BFOES. The implications of the BFOES for the assessment of social anxiety, and theoretical models of fear of evaluation and SAD, are discussed.

Psychometric evaluation of the Iranian version of brief fear of negative evaluation scale-straightforward item (BFNE-S): A validation study

Background: The Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale-Straightforward Item (BFNE-S) is an internationally recognized tool for measuring fear of negative evaluation. The current investigation was designed to assess the reliability and validity of the Persian version of BFNE-S in a non-clinical sample in Iran.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of university students. They completed the Iranian version of the BFNE-S and the Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN). Internal consistency was assessed using the Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Validity was examined using known groups comparison to test how well the questionnaire differentiates between subgroups of the study sample that differed in gender. In addition convergent validity was performed to examine the correlation between the BFNE-S and scores derived from the SPIN. Furthermore, the structural validity of the questionnaire was examined by performing confirmatory factor analysis using the LISREL 8.8 software.

Results: A total of 150 university students participated in the study. The results obtained from reliability analysis indicated that the Iranian version of the BFNE-S had desirable internal consistency. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.89. Satisfactory discriminant and convergent validity of the questionnaire also were established. The BFNE-S score was significantly higher in female respondents compared to male respondents as hypothesized (P = 0.008). The BFNE-S was correlated to the Iranian version of the Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN) in the expected direction (r = 0.58, P <0.001). The confirmatory factor analysis indicated a good fit to data lending support to its original one-dimensional structure.

Conclusion: The findings indicated that the Iranian version of the BFNE-S was a valid measure of fear of negative evaluation. Since the scale showed a unitary factor structure, the theoretical basis for the BFNE-S is confirmed.

Does centrality in a cross-sectional network suggest intervention targets for social anxiety disorder?

OBJECTIVE

Network analysis allows us to identify the most interconnected (i.e., central) symptoms, and multiple authors have suggested that these symptoms might be important treatment targets. This is because change in central symptoms (relative to others) should have greater impact on change in all other symptoms. It has been argued that networks derived from cross-sectional data may help identify such important symptoms. We tested this hypothesis in social anxiety disorder.

METHOD

We first estimated a state-of-the-art regularized partial correlation network based on participants with social anxiety disorder (n = 910) to determine which symptoms were more central. Next, we tested whether change in these central symptoms were indeed more related to overall symptom change in a separate dataset of participants with social anxiety disorder who underwent a variety of treatments (n = 244). We also tested whether relatively superficial item properties (infrequency of endorsement and variance of items) might account for any effects shown for central symptoms.

RESULTS

Centrality indices successfully predicted how strongly changes in items correlated with change in the remainder of the items. Findings were limited to the measure used in the network and did not generalize to three other measures related to social anxiety severity. In contrast, infrequency of endorsement showed associations across all measures.

CONCLUSIONS

The transfer of recently published results from cross-sectional network analyses to treatment data is unlikely to be straightforward. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

The structure of vulnerabilities for social anxiety disorder

Social anxiety disorder symptoms are generally proposed to be related to broad temperamental vulnerabilities (e.g., a low level of approach and high level of avoidance temperament), specific psychological vulnerabilities (e.g., fears of negative and positive evaluation), and additional disorders (e.g., major depressive disorder). However, existing tests of such a model have either not considered depressive symptoms or relied on samples of undergraduates. We examined these and related questions via a latent variable model in a large dataset (N=2253) that combined participants across a variety of studies. The model had adequate fit in the whole sample, and good fit in a subsample in which more participants completed the depression measure. The model indicated that low level of approach and high level of avoidance temperament contributed to fears of evaluation and social anxiety symptoms, and that fears of evaluation additionally contributed independently to social anxiety symptoms. The relationship between social anxiety and depressive symptoms was entirely accounted for by these vulnerabilities: Depressive symptoms were only predicted by avoidance temperament.

Examination of the Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale–Version 2 and the Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale–Straightforward Items Factor Structure in a Sample of U.S. College Students

The current study examined the factor structure of the Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation–Straightforward Items (BFNE-S) and the Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation–Version 2 (BFNE-II) among 151 college students from the United States. Results indicated that the BFNE-S and the BFNE-II scores demonstrated excellent internal consistency reliability. Single-group confirmatory factor analyses found that compared with the BFNE-II, the BFNE-S demonstrated a superior fit for the unitary theoretical model. Together, these findings suggest that the BFNE-S appears to be a better measure for assessing fear of negative evaluation in U.S. college students.