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Development of a Brief Version of the Social Anxiety – Acceptance and Action Questionnaire

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Abstract

The Social Anxiety – Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (SA-AAQ; MacKenzie and Kocovski 2010) is a 19-item self-report measure designed to assess acceptance and action specific to social anxiety symptoms. The present research was designed to evaluate an abbreviated version of the SA-AAQ. This abbreviated scale was confirmed using an undergraduate sample (N = 148) in Study 1 and a clinical sample of individuals with social anxiety disorder in Study 2 (N = 137). Results indicated that an eight-item, two-factor model (acceptance and action) provided a good fit for the Brief SA-AAQ in both samples. Finally, we also found preliminary evidence in support of the convergent, discriminant/divergent, and incremental validity of the shortened scale. The Brief SA-AAQ shows promise as a useful and brief tool for the measurement of acceptance of social anxiety symptoms in socially anxious populations.

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Notes

  1. Scoring the B-SA-AAQ in this manner (i.e., higher scores indicate greater acceptance) is consistent with the original version of the SA-AAQ, but it is in contrast to the AAQ-II scoring.

  2. Additional measures of social anxiety were administered; however, the results using the other scales were similar.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support awarded to the second author from the Ontario Mental Health Foundation (grant number 1–51-54,320) and the Ministry of Research and Innovation (grant number ER09–06-227).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Meagan B. MacKenzie & Martin M. Antony

  2. Department of Psychology, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

    Nancy L. Kocovski, Rebecca A. Blackie & Lauren C. Carrique

  3. Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Jan E. Fleming

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  1. Meagan B. MacKenzie
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  2. Nancy L. Kocovski
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  3. Rebecca A. Blackie
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  4. Lauren C. Carrique
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  5. Jan E. Fleming
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Correspondence to Meagan B. MacKenzie.

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Conflict of Interest

Meagan B. MacKenzie declares that she has no conflict of interest. Nancy L. Kocovski declares that she has no conflict of interest. Rebecca A. Blackie declares that she has no conflict of interest. Lauren C. Carrique declares that she has no conflict of interest. Jan. E. Fleming declares that she has no conflict of interest. Martin M. Antony declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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This research was approved by the appropriate institutional review committees and met the guidelines of responsible government agencies. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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ᅟ B-SA-AAQ
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MacKenzie, M.B., Kocovski, N.L., Blackie, R.A. et al. Development of a Brief Version of the Social Anxiety – Acceptance and Action Questionnaire. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 39, 342–354 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-016-9585-3

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