Evidence based clinical assessment of child and adolescent social phobia: a critical review of rating scales.

Investigating the empirical support of various assessment instruments, the evidence based assessment approach expands the scientific basis of psychotherapy. Starting from Hunsley and Mash's evaluative framework, we critically reviewed the rating scales designed to measure social anxiety or phobia in youth. Thirteen of the most researched social anxiety scales for children and adolescents were identified. An overview about the scientific support accumulated by these scales is offered. Our main results are consistent with recent reviews that consider the Social Phobia and Anxiety Scale for Children (SPAI-C) and the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SAS-A) among the most pertinent and empirically supported measures of social anxiety for youngsters. However, after considering the existing evidence, we highly recommend another couple of scales that proved to be empirically supported (i.e., the Social Phobia Inventory-SPIN, and the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale for Children and Adolescents-LSAS-CA).