Assessing social anxiety in African American youth using the social phobia and anxiety inventory for children.

Examined measurement invariance and cut-off scores of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children (SPAI-C) using data corresponding to a convenience sample of 501 African American and Caucasian youth (Mage = 11.62 years, 249 girls; 49% with social anxiety disorder) using exploratory structural equation modeling and a weighted least squares mean variance estimator. For the cut-off scores, Receiver Operator Characteristic analyses were used along with Youden’s index to evaluate the balance between sensitivity and specificity. Overall, results supported the SPAI-C’s cross-race invariance but a few items emerged as non-invariant. Compared to past research, lower SPAI-C cutoff scores were found (13 to 15 range). Findings support research showing that African American youth generally have significantly lower (or similar) social anxiety levels than their White counterparts. Suggestions for using the SPAI-C with African American under non-invariant conditions youth are provided and implications of using lower cutoff scores are discussed.