Title Psychometric properties of Lithuanian translation of the self-report version of the Liebowitz social anxiety scale in young adult sample
Authors Zamalijeva, Olga ; Petraškaitė, Karolina ; Rupšys, Giedrius ; Jurevičiūtė, Ieva ; Gegieckaitė, Goda ; Liebowitz, Michael R ; Eimontas, Jonas
DOI 10.3389/fpsyt.2026.1787195
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Is Part of Frontiers in psychiatry.. Lausanne : Frontiers Media SA. 2026, vol. 17, art. no. 1787195, p. [1-9].. eISSN 1664-0640
Keywords [eng] confirmatory factor analysis ; internal consistency ; Liebowitz social anxiety scale ; psychometric properties ; young adults
Abstract [eng] Background: Social anxiety disorder starts in adolescence or young adulthood and may have damaging effects on psychosocial development of the individual. Any intervention starts from assessment and the Liebowitz social anxiety scale with later developed self-report version is a valuable tool for practitioners for almost four decades. Even though the original version and adaptations have consistently demonstrated good reliability, there remains considerable debate regarding the factor structure. The aim is to test the factor structure and internal consistency of Lithuanian translation of the self-report version of the Liebowitz social anxiety scale (LSAS-SR) in a non-clinical young adult sample.Method: Data of 452 young adults (mean age 21.3, 69.7% female) who volunteered participate in the study was used. Two factor solutions were tested: a single-factor model, with anxiety/fear and avoidance ratings loading on one factor, and a higher-order factor model, including two second-order scales (anxiety/fear scale and avoidance scale) and four first-order subscales (social interaction anxiety, performance anxiety, social interaction avoidance, performance avoidance). Internal consistency assessed using Cronbach’s alpha.Results: Lithuanian version has excellent internal consistency for the total score, scales and subscales, with Cronbach’s alfas ranging.85-.96. Confirmatory factor analysis shows that both tested models have acceptable data fit (RMSEA = .062-.067; CFI = .93-.94), however strong associations between (sub)scales, i.e. correlations exceeding.80, suggests that the use of scale and subscale scores may be less informative, especially in cross-sectional research, but could provide nuanced information in individual assessment.Conclusion: Further research on psychometric properties of Lithuanian versions of LSAS-SR should focus on verifying these results in a representative sample and in a clinical sample as well as testing the convergent and discriminant validity.
Published Lausanne : Frontiers Media SA
Type Journal article
Language English
Publication date 2026
CC license CC license description