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Informant discrepancies in adult social anxiety disorder assessments: Links with contextual variations in observed behavior.

Year: 2013

Type: article

Abstract: Multi-informant assessments of adult psychopathology often result in discrepancies among informants' reports. Among 157 adults meeting criteria for either the generalized (n = 106) or nongeneralized (n = 51) social anxiety disorder (SAD) subtype, we examined whether discrepancies between patients' and clinicians' reports of patients' symptoms related to variations in both SAD subtype and expressions of social skills deficits across multiple social interaction tasks. Latent class analyses revealed two behavioral patterns: (a) context-specific social skills deficits and (b) cross-context social skills deficits. Similarly, patients' symptom reports could be characterized by concordance or discordance with clinicians' reports. Patient-clinician concordance on relatively high levels of patients' symptoms related to an increased likelihood of the patient meeting criteria for the generalized relative to nongeneralized subtype. Further, patient-clinician concordance on relatively high levels of patients' symptoms related to an increased likelihood of consistently exhibiting social skills deficits across social interaction tasks (relative to context-specific social skills deficits). These relations were robust in accounting for patient age, clinical severity, and Axis I and II comorbidity. Further, clinical severity did not completely explain variability in patients' behavior on laboratory tasks or discrepancies between patient and clinician reports. Findings provide the first laboratory-based support for the ability of informant discrepancies to indicate cross-contextual variability in clinical adult assessments, and the first of any developmental period to indicate this for SAD assessments. These findings have important implications for clinical assessment and developmental psychopathology research.

Source: Journal of Abnormal Psychology

DOI: 10.1037/a0031150

Authors: Andres De Los Reyes, Brian E. Bunnell, Deborah C. Beidel

Institutions: University of Maryland, College Park, University of Central Florida

Language: English

Topic: Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes

Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

Funder: National Institute of Mental Health