Psychometric properties of the Social Anxiety Questionnaire for Adults (CASO) in Dominican population

Social anxiety disorder is a mental illness characterized by marked and persistent fear of one or more social situations. The Social Anxiety Questionnaire for Adults (CASO) involves items elaborated from characteristic social situations of the Ibero-American context. For this reason, the main objective of this study is to analyze the psychometric properties of this instrument for the Dominican population. A non-probabilistically selected sample was used, made up of 600 people from the general population of the Dominican Republic. Of the total, 245 were men (40.8%) and 355 women (59.2%). The mean age was 29.21 (SD = 11.16). Different models were contrasted using AFC. Based on the results obtained, it can be affirmed that the pentafactorial structure is the one that presents the best fit indices. The analyzes referring to the internal consistency of the 5 factors showed satisfactory results that meet the criteria established by international psychometric regulations regarding the homogeneity of the content of the items. No differences were found in CASE scores between men and women. When jointly considering the results obtained, it can be affirmed that the psychometric properties of the CASO scores are satisfactory for use in the Dominican population.