Social Avoidance and Distress Scale (SAD) and Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (FNE) : reliability and the preliminary assessment of validity

Шкала общественной фобии (ШОФ) и Шкала боязни перед негативной оценкой (ШНО) : oенка действительности и предварительная оценка достоверности

Škala obŝestvennoj fobii (ŠOF) i Škala boâzni pered negativnoj ocenkoj(ŠNO) : ocenka dejstvitelʹnosti i predvaritelʹnaâ ocenka dostovernosti

Skala Vermeidung von und Belastung durch soziale Situationen (SAD) und Skala Furcht vor negativer Bewertung (FNE) : reliabilität und Vorbewertung der Validität

SAD (Social Avoidance and Distress Scale) et FNE (Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale) : évaluation préliminaire de leur validité et fiabilité

Aim. Assessment of reliability, cross-validity and usefulness in everyday clinical practice of two related tools: Social Avoidance and Distress Scale (SAD) and Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (FNE). Material and method. Analysis of tests results of 453 females and 172 males diagnosed in the years 2008-2010 in the Outpatient Clinic for Neurotic and Behavioral Disorders of the Cracow University Hospital, including, inter alia, results of the questionnaires SAD and FNE. The scales have been, with the consent of their authors (R. Friend) and the copyright holder (APA), translated into Polish and back-translated. Subjects also completed the symptom checklist KO ‘0 ‘(n = 512), and neurotic personality questionnaire KON-2006 (n = 505), as well as the NEO-PI-R personality inventory (n = 46). The reliability and cross-validity coefficients of Polish versions were assessed in the patient population and their results were compared with those of the group of 75 medical students. Results. The translation was verified by retranslation. The reliability coefficients of Polish version of the SAD and FNE scales turned out to be high - Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.94 for both scales, Guttman’s split-half reliability coefficient 0.93. Correlations with symptom checklist KO ‘0 ‘and neurotic personality questionnaire KON-2006, as well as with the NEO -PI-R personality inventory were significant and indicate a good cross-validity of the analyzed tools. The average results in the patient population for both scales were significantly higher than the results in the preliminary control group of medical students. Conclusions. Polish versions of SAD and FNE questionnaires, like their other translations from English, proved to be reliable and have a high cross-validity with other original Polish tools used in the diagnosis of neurotic disorders, which allows to recommend them to be used in further studies, also in comparing healthy persons with those suffering from a variety of neurotic disorders.