Revision and validation of Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale for Children and Adolescents

SUN Zhijing; LI Wei; TANG Xinfeng; YU Meng

doi:10.12122/j.issn.1673-4254.2026.03.22

Abstract：Objective To adapt the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale for Children and Adolescents(LSAS-CA)to Chinese cultural contexts and assess its reliability and validity among Chinese adolescents.Methods A total of 2103 vocational high school students(917 males and 1186 females;mean age 16.73±1.24 years)in Guangdong Province completed an online survey using the LSAS-CA.Item analysis and psychometric evaluations were conducted.The concurrent validity of the scale was assessed using the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents(SAS-A),Patient Health Questionnaire(PHQ-9),and Post-Event Processing Inventory-Trait(PEPI-T),and its discriminant validity was examined using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale(RSES).Three months later,210 of the students were retested to examine the test-retest reliability of LSAS-CA.Results The Chinese LSAS-CA retained 24 items(12 social interaction and 12 performance situations)for assessing anxiety and avoidance with a total of 48 scored responses.Confirmatory factor analysis was used for comparing fitting of 4 competing models(unidimensional,two-factor,bifactor,and higher-order models),and the bifactor model showed the best fit:anxiety bifactor model(χ²=3168.263,df=224,χ²/df=14.144,RMR=0.022,GFI=0.875,AGFI=0.832,PGFI=0.653,NFI=0.931,TLI=0.921,CFI=0.936,and RMSEA=0.079);avoidance bifactor model(χ²=3144.601,df=216,χ²/df=14.558,RMR=0.019,GFI=0.875,AGFI=0.826,PGFI=0.630,NFI=0.944,TLI=0.933,CFI=0.948,and RMSEA=0.080).Conclusion The revised Chinese version of LSAS-CA has acceptable reliability and validity in the context of Chinese culture and provides a more convenient measurement tool for Chinese researchers to study adolescent social anxiety.