Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS): Testing Measurement Equivalence across Cultures

Cultural variations in the expression of social anxiety and interpretation of social anxiety measures have been reported. The current study examined measurement equivalence of the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS) across individuals with or without Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) from Australia and Japan. Participants with SAD and nonclinical university students from Australia (ns = 300 and 647, respectively) and Japan (ns = 401 and 786, respectively) completed the LSAS. Each group was tested for the goodness of fit to the previous models using the Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFAs). The CFAs indicated unsatisfactory fit with all groups, and a modified model was used for the evaluation of measurement invariance using multi-group CFAs. As predicted, the LSAS was not found measurement equivalent across individuals (both clinical and nonclinical) from an Australian and Japanese cultural context. Full findings will be presented and theoretical and clinical implications will be discussed at the conference.