Psychometric properties of the Indonesian version of social anxiety questionnaire for adults (SAQ-A30)

Background Currently, there is scarcely any social anxiety diagnostic tool in Indonesia that is inclusive for middle-aged to late-aged adults, adequately representative to the diagnostic criteria, and thoroughly analyzed for validity and reliability. SAQ-A30 had proven to be an effectively administrable, reliable, and valid assessment to aid diagnoses of social anxiety disorder among the adult population in 22 countries. This study aims to adapt and validate SAQ-A30 to provide a reliable and valid diagnostic tool to accurately identify adult Indonesian citizens suffering from social anxiety disorder and assign them suitable interventions. Methods The English version of the SAQ-A30 was adapted into Indonesian through forward-backward translation and peer review. The questionnaire was administered to adult Indonesian citizens aged 20–64 years-old, along with Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale – Self-Report (LSAS-SR) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder Assessment (GAD-7). Validity was assessed using content analysis in expert judgment and readability test, as well as confirmatory factor analysis. Meanwhile, the correlation of SAQ-A30 to LSAS-SR and GAD-7 was assessed to analyze convergent and discriminant validity, respectively. Furthermore, reliability was assessed using the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient to examine internal consistency and a retest was conducted to examine test-retest reliability. Results 522 adults aged 20–64 years-old participated in the initial testing and 117 of them participated in the retest. Confirmatory Factor Analysis in JASP 0.19.3.0 confirmed an adequate fit of the five-factor model, consistent with the original questionnaire (GFI = 0.981, RMSEA = 0.070, SRMR = 0.060, CFI = 0.922, TLI = 0.914, NFI = 0.895, IFI = 0.923, PNFI = 0.873). Further analysis found high convergent validity with LSAS-SR ( r  = 0.611, p  < 0.001), acceptable discriminant validity with GAD-7 ( r = -0.181, p  < 0.001), excellent test-retest reliability over a 6-week period (ICC 0.994), and excellent internal reliability (α = 0.916; ω = 0.917). Conclusions This adaptation of SAQ-A30 was proven to be a satisfactorily reliable and valid assessment to measure social anxiety in Indonesian adults. Therefore, it serves as one of the first diagnostic anxiety assessments specifically designed for adults in Indonesia, aiding in future clinical diagnoses and social anxiety related research. Studies for clinical participants and further psychometric evaluation should be the focus of future research.