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Šipka D, Brodbeck J, Schulz A, Stolz T, Berger T. Factor structure of the Social Phobia Scale (SPS) and the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) in a clinical sample recruited from the community. BMC Psychiatry 2023; 23:646. [PMID: 37667274 PMCID: PMC10478387 DOI: 10.1186/s12888-023-05142-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2023] [Accepted: 08/26/2023] [Indexed: 09/06/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The Social Phobia Scale (SPS) and the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) are widely used self-report questionnaires to assess symptoms of social anxiety. While SPS measures social performance anxiety, SIAS measures social interaction anxiety. They are mostly reported simultaneously, but there have not been consistent results of the joint factor structure and therefore no consistent recommendations on how to use and evaluate the questionnaires. This study aimed (1) to evaluate the underlying joint factor structure of the SPS and SIAS and (2) to test whether SPS and SIAS are reliable scales to assess two different aspects of social anxiety. METHODS The one-factor, two-factor, and bifactor models were tested in a clinical sample recruited from the community and diagnosed with a social anxiety disorder. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted, bifactor-specific indices were calculated, and the content of the less fitting items was examined. RESULTS Confirmatory factor analyses showed that the best-fitting model was the bifactor model with a reduced set of items. The bifactor-specific indices showed that the factor structure cannot be considered unidimensional and that SPS and SIAS are reliable subscales. A closer examination of the less fitting item content and implications for future studies are discussed. CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, SPS and SIAS can be reported together as an overall score of social anxiety and are separately reliable measures to assess different aspects of social anxiety. TRIAL REGISTRATION This is a secondary analysis of data from two trials registered under ISRCTN75894275 and ISRCTN10627379.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dajana Šipka
- Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Fabrikstrasse 8, 3012, Bern, Switzerland.
| | - Jeannette Brodbeck
- Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Fabrikstrasse 8, 3012, Bern, Switzerland
- School of Social Work, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, Olten, Switzerland
| | - Ava Schulz
- Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Fabrikstrasse 8, 3012, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Timo Stolz
- Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Fabrikstrasse 8, 3012, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Thomas Berger
- Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Fabrikstrasse 8, 3012, Bern, Switzerland
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Chard I, Van Zalk N, Picinali L. Virtual reality exposure therapy for reducing social anxiety in stuttering: A randomized controlled pilot trial. Front Digit Health 2023; 5:1061323. [PMID: 36845336 PMCID: PMC9947508 DOI: 10.3389/fdgth.2023.1061323] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2022] [Accepted: 01/18/2023] [Indexed: 02/11/2023] Open
Abstract
We report on findings from the first randomized controlled pilot trial of virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) developed specifically for reducing social anxiety associated with stuttering. People who stutter with heightened social anxiety were recruited from online adverts and randomly allocated to receive VRET (n = 13) or be put on a waitlist (n = 12). Treatment was delivered remotely using a smartphone-based VR headset. It consisted of three weekly sessions, each comprising both performative and interactive exposure exercises, and was guided by a virtual therapist. Multilevel model analyses failed to demonstrate the effectiveness of VRET at reducing social anxiety between pre- and post-treatment. We found similar results for fear of negative evaluation, negative thoughts associated with stuttering, and stuttering characteristics. However, VRET was associated with reduced social anxiety between post-treatment and one-month follow-up. These pilot findings suggest that our current VRET protocol may not be effective at reducing social anxiety amongst people who stutter, though might be capable of supporting longer-term change. Future VRET protocols targeting stuttering-related social anxiety should be explored with larger samples. The results from this pilot trial provide a solid basis for further design improvements and for future research to explore appropriate techniques for widening access to social anxiety treatments in stuttering.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ian Chard
- Design Psychology Lab, Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom,Correspondence: Ian Chard
| | - Nejra Van Zalk
- Design Psychology Lab, Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Lorenzo Picinali
- Audio Experience Design Group, Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
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Shaukat-Jali R, van Zalk N, Boyle DE. Detecting Subclinical Social Anxiety Using Physiological Data From a Wrist-Worn Wearable: Small-Scale Feasibility Study. JMIR Form Res 2021; 5:e32656. [PMID: 34617905 PMCID: PMC8532020 DOI: 10.2196/32656] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2021] [Revised: 09/17/2021] [Accepted: 09/20/2021] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Subclinical (ie, threshold) social anxiety can greatly affect young people's lives, but existing solutions appear inadequate considering its rising prevalence. Wearable sensors may provide a novel way to detect social anxiety and result in new opportunities for monitoring and treatment, which would be greatly beneficial for persons with social anxiety, society, and health care services. Nevertheless, indicators such as skin temperature measured by wrist-worn sensors have not been used in prior work on physiological social anxiety detection. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to investigate whether subclinical social anxiety in young adults can be detected using physiological data obtained from wearable sensors, including heart rate, skin temperature, and electrodermal activity (EDA). METHODS Young adults (N=12) with self-reported subclinical social anxiety (measured using the widely used self-reported version of the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale) participated in an impromptu speech task. Physiological data were collected using an E4 Empatica wearable device. Using the preprocessed data and following a supervised machine learning approach, various classification algorithms such as Support Vector Machine, Decision Tree, Random Forest, and K-Nearest Neighbours (KNN) were used to develop models for 3 different contexts. Models were trained to differentiate (1) between baseline and socially anxious states, (2) among baseline, anticipation anxiety, and reactive anxiety states, and (3) social anxiety among individuals with social anxiety of differing severity. The predictive capability of the singular modalities was also explored in each of the 3 supervised learning experiments. The generalizability of the developed models was evaluated using 10-fold cross-validation as a performance index. RESULTS With modalities combined, the developed models yielded accuracies between 97.54% and 99.48% when differentiating between baseline and socially anxious states. Models trained to differentiate among baseline, anticipation anxiety, and reactive anxiety states yielded accuracies between 95.18% and 98.10%. Furthermore, the models developed to differentiate between social anxiety experienced by individuals with anxiety of differing severity scores successfully classified with accuracies between 98.86% and 99.52%. Surprisingly, EDA was identified as the most effective singular modality when differentiating between baseline and social anxiety states, whereas ST was the most effective modality when differentiating anxiety among individuals with social anxiety of differing severity. CONCLUSIONS The results indicate that it is possible to accurately detect social anxiety as well as distinguish between levels of severity in young adults by leveraging physiological data collected from wearable sensors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ruksana Shaukat-Jali
- Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Nejra van Zalk
- Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - David Edward Boyle
- Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
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Al-Ezzi A, Kamel N, Faye I, Gunaseli E. Analysis of Default Mode Network in Social Anxiety Disorder: EEG Resting-State Effective Connectivity Study. SENSORS (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2021; 21:4098. [PMID: 34203578 PMCID: PMC8232236 DOI: 10.3390/s21124098] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2021] [Revised: 04/07/2021] [Accepted: 04/09/2021] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
Recent brain imaging findings by using different methods (e.g., fMRI and PET) have suggested that social anxiety disorder (SAD) is correlated with alterations in regional or network-level brain function. However, due to many limitations associated with these methods, such as poor temporal resolution and limited number of samples per second, neuroscientists could not quantify the fast dynamic connectivity of causal information networks in SAD. In this study, SAD-related changes in brain connections within the default mode network (DMN) were investigated using eight electroencephalographic (EEG) regions of interest. Partial directed coherence (PDC) was used to assess the causal influences of DMN regions on each other and indicate the changes in the DMN effective network related to SAD severity. The DMN is a large-scale brain network basically composed of the mesial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), posterior cingulate cortex (PCC)/precuneus, and lateral parietal cortex (LPC). The EEG data were collected from 88 subjects (22 control, 22 mild, 22 moderate, 22 severe) and used to estimate the effective connectivity between DMN regions at different frequency bands: delta (1-3 Hz), theta (4-8 Hz), alpha (8-12 Hz), low beta (13-21 Hz), and high beta (22-30 Hz). Among the healthy control (HC) and the three considered levels of severity of SAD, the results indicated a higher level of causal interactions for the mild and moderate SAD groups than for the severe and HC groups. Between the control and the severe SAD groups, the results indicated a higher level of causal connections for the control throughout all the DMN regions. We found significant increases in the mean PDC in the delta (p = 0.009) and alpha (p = 0.001) bands between the SAD groups. Among the DMN regions, the precuneus exhibited a higher level of causal influence than other regions. Therefore, it was suggested to be a major source hub that contributes to the mental exploration and emotional content of SAD. In contrast to the severe group, HC exhibited higher resting-state connectivity at the mPFC, providing evidence for mPFC dysfunction in the severe SAD group. Furthermore, the total Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) was positively correlated with the mean values of the PDC of the severe SAD group, r (22) = 0.576, p = 0.006 and negatively correlated with those of the HC group, r (22) = -0.689, p = 0.001. The reported results may facilitate greater comprehension of the underlying potential SAD neural biomarkers and can be used to characterize possible targets for further medication.
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Affiliation(s)
- Abdulhakim Al-Ezzi
- Centre for Intelligent Signal and Imaging Research (CISIR), Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar 32610, Malaysia; (A.A.-E.); (N.K.)
| | - Nidal Kamel
- Centre for Intelligent Signal and Imaging Research (CISIR), Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar 32610, Malaysia; (A.A.-E.); (N.K.)
| | - Ibrahima Faye
- Centre for Intelligent Signal and Imaging Research (CISIR), Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar 32610, Malaysia; (A.A.-E.); (N.K.)
| | - Esther Gunaseli
- Psychiatry Discipline Sub Unit, Universiti Kuala Lumpur Royal College of Medicine Perak, Ipoh 30450, Malaysia;
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Lu Y, Zhong R, Li M, Zhao Q, Zhang X, Hu B, Lin W. Social anxiety is associated with poor quality of life in adults with epilepsy in Northeast China: A cross-sectional study. Epilepsy Behav 2021; 117:107866. [PMID: 33684784 DOI: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2021.107866] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/26/2020] [Revised: 02/08/2021] [Accepted: 02/15/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE This study aimed to investigate the factors influencing the level of social anxiety in patients with epilepsy (PWE) in Northeast China. We also identified the effect of social anxiety on the quality of life in these patients. METHODS A consecutive cohort of 148 adult PWE from The First Hospital of Jilin University were recruited. In this sample, 116 patients had focal epilepsy, 20 had generalized epilepsy, and 12 had unclassified epilepsy. Depressive symptoms, social anxiety, and quality of life were evaluated using the Chinese version of the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9), 20-item Social Phobia Scale (SPS), 20-item Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS), and Quality-of-Life Inventory in Epilepsy-31 (QOLIE-31), respectively. Multivariate linear regression analyses were employed to identify independent factors influencing SPS scores and SIAS scores. RESULTS Correlation analysis suggested that sex, age at onset, seizure frequency over the last year, AED treatment model, >50% nocturnal seizures, PHQ-9 score, and QOLIE-31 score had a significant correlation with the SPS score. The age at onset, seizure frequency over the last year, AED treatment model, PHQ-9 score, and QOLIE-31 score correlated with the SIAS score. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that the total QOLIE-31 score (β = - 0.481; p = 0.001) was inversely associated with the SPS score in PWE. Additionally, earlier age of onset (β = -0.156; p = 0.022) and low total QOLIE-31 score (β = -0.457; p = 0.001) were risk factors for high SIAS scores. CONCLUSION We found that social anxiety was independently associated with poor quality of life. Earlier age of onset was also a risk factor for social anxiety. Future studies with large sample sizes are required to confirm our findings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yingxue Lu
- Department of Neurology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Rui Zhong
- Department of Neurology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Mengmeng Li
- Department of Neurology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Qian Zhao
- Department of Neurology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Xinyue Zhang
- Department of Neurology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Boqi Hu
- Radiology Department, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China.
| | - Weihong Lin
- Department of Neurology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China.
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Hwang MY, Hong JC, Tai KH, Chen JT, Gouldthorp T. The relationship between the online social anxiety, perceived information overload and fatigue, and job engagement of civil servant LINE users. GOVERNMENT INFORMATION QUARTERLY 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/j.giq.2019.101423] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
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Harker K, O’Toole E, Keshmiripour S, McIntosh M, Sassen C. Mixed-Methods Assessment of a Mentoring Program. JOURNAL OF LIBRARY ADMINISTRATION 2019. [DOI: 10.1080/01930826.2019.1661745] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Karen Harker
- Collection Assessment Librarian, University of North Texas Libraries, Denton, TX, USA
| | - Erin O’Toole
- Science Reference Librarian, University of North Texas Libraries, Denton, TX, USA
| | | | - Marcia McIntosh
- Digital Production Librarian, University of North Texas Libraries, Denton, TX, USA
| | - Catherine Sassen
- Principal Cataloger, University of North Texas Libraries, Denton, TX, USA
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