Validation and Diagnostic Efficiency
Literature Review
The article under review is titled “Validation and Diagnostic Efficiency of the Mini-SPIN in Spanish-Speaking Adolescents” by Garcia-Lopez & Moore (2016). The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the Mini-SPIN diagnostic tool for social anxiety disorder (SAD) among Spanish-speaking adolescents. The need for this study was to compare with similar studies done for English-speaking and Finnish adolescents, to determine whether Mini-SPIN would be an effective diagnostic tool for adolescents in a different culture. Additionally, the study was necessary considering SAD is a highly common mental health disorder among the adolescents, which could extend into their adult life. Therefore, analyzing the psychometric properties of the Mini-SPIN in diagnosing or detecting SAD in Spanish adolescents was the basis of this study.Validation and Diagnostic Efficiency
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To conduct the study, the researchers did two main studies with two different Spanish speaking groups of adolescents. The first study comprised of 573 participants aged between 12 and 18 years, chosen using the random sampling technique. These participants were selected from 1 private and 2 public schools, from South Spain. The researchers hired ten research assistants to administer the tests to the students. The tests administered include Mini-SPIN, SAS-A and SPAI-B. The researchers analyzed this data using the ANOVA approach, placing gender and age as the main factors. The researchers also used the Cronbach’s alpha and the Omega total coefficient measures to determine the internal consistency of the Mini-SPIN. Based on these analyses, the researchers established that the Mini-SPIN had an internal consistency of 0.78 and the omega total coefficient was 0.80, with a CI 95% of 76-84.
The second study conducted comprised of 354 adolescents aged 12 to 17 years. Out of this sample, 147 had been clinically diagnosed with SAD, using the DSM-5 manual. 23% of this sample also had comorbid disorders such as specific phobia and other mood disorders. 207 participants from this sample were healthy controls for comparison purposes. Just as the first sample, the participants in this second study were administers the Mini-SPIN, SPAI-B and SAS-A scales. For this sample, the researchers hired eight psychology students to conduct the interviews, having been trained in using diagnostic interviews. The inclusion criteria for this sample was initial diagnosis for SAD, aged between 12 and 17 years old, and written consent from participant and parent. The researchers also used ANOVA to assess the internal consistency for the age and gender factors, and the Pearson’s product-moment correlation among the Mini-SPIN, SPAI-B, and SAS-A. The results in the second study indicate that the internal consistency was 0.82, and the omega coefficient for all participants was 0.82. additionally, the correlations among the three different SAD measurement tools were strong; where r= 0.75, 0.79, and 0.74. Validation and Diagnostic Efficiency
Based on the two studies, the researchers determined that using the Mini-SPIN to detect SAD in adolescents was highly effective considering this measurement tool is easy to score, is valid, brief, and reliable. The simplicity and brevity of this tool makes it useful for screening SAD among adolescents. Additionally, just as other studies done to measure the effectiveness of Mini-SPIN in English-speaking and Finnish adolescents, this tool traverses its effectiveness across cultures because it is effective in measuring the effectiveness for the Spanish adolescents. It can therefore, be utilized in screening SAD across different cultural contexts, hence, making it a fast choice for most clinicians.
References
Garcia-Lopez, L., & Moore, H. T. (2015). Validation and Diagnostic Efficiency of the Mini-SPIN in Spanish-Speaking Adolescents. PloS one, 10(8), e0135862. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0135862 Validation and Diagnostic Efficiency