| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Description | The Social Anxiety Questionnaire for Adults–Short Form (SAQ-A30; Caballo et al., 2012) is a 30-item tool designed to assess social phobia. It is a revision of the 72-item Social Anxiety Questionnaire for Adults (SAQ-AR; Caballo et al., 2010), created to include significant social situations not present in the original version. The initial item pool of 512 items underwent expert consensus, resulting in a 118-item scale that was reduced to 30 items after exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The final version measures five dimensions: public speaking/authority figures, interactions with the opposite sex, assertive expression of negative emotions, interactions with strangers, and criticism/embarrassment. Internal consistency is reported as 0.93. Convergent validity was demonstrated, but discriminant validity was not tested. |
| Author | Vicente E. Caballo, Isabel C. Salazar, María Jesús Irurtia, Benito Arias, Stefan G. Hofmann |
| Purpose | The SAQ-A30 is designed to assess social phobia in various social contexts. |
| Construct | Social Anxiety |
| Instrument Type | Inventory/Questionnaire |
| Test Type | Revision |
| Reliability | Internal Consistency: 0.93 |
| Validity | Convergent Validity: Supported through correlation with the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale–Self-Report. |
| Factor Analysis | Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses identified five factors: public speaking/authority figures, interactions with the opposite sex, assertive expression of negative emotions, interactions with strangers, and criticism/embarrassment. |
| Test Year | 2012 |
| Population Group | Human; Male; Female |
| Population Details | Non-clinical subjects (ages 16–68) and mental health center patients (ages 16–66) from Mexico, Colombia, Spain, Peru, Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, Portugal, Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Paraguay, and Ecuador. |
| Age Group | Adolescents (13–17 years); Adults (18 years and older); Young Adults (18–29 years); Thirties (30–39 years); Middle Age (40–64 years); Elderly (65 years and older) |
| Keywords | Assertive Expression of Annoyance; Criticism and Embarrassment; Interactions with Strangers; Interactions with the Opposite Sex; Internal Consistency; Social Anxiety; Public Speaking; Test Development |
| References | Caballo, V. E., Salazar, I. C., Irurtia, M. J., Arias, B., & Hofmann, S. G. (2012). The multidimensional nature and multicultural validity of a new measure of social anxiety: The Social Anxiety Questionnaire for Adults. Behavior Therapy, 43(2), 313–328. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2011.07.001 |
Instructions:
Please rate each item below according to the level of unease, stress, or nervousness it provokes in you. Answer honestly and do not be concerned about providing “right” or “wrong” responses.
Response Scale:
| Level of Unease | Numerical Value |
| Not at all | 1 |
| Slight or Very Slight | 2 |
| Moderate | 3 |
| High | 4 |
| Very High or Extremely High | 5 |
Items:
| # | Item | Response (1-5) |
| 1 | Greeting someone and being ignored | 1 2 3 4 5 |
| 2 | Having to ask a neighbor to stop making noise | 1 2 3 4 5 |
| 3 | Speaking in public | 1 2 3 4 5 |
| 4 | Asking someone attractive of the opposite sex for a date | 1 2 3 4 5 |
| 5 | Complaining to the waiter about my food | 1 2 3 4 5 |
| 6 | Feeling watched by people of the opposite sex | 1 2 3 4 5 |
| 7 | Participating in a meeting with people in authority | 1 2 3 4 5 |
| 8 | Talking to someone who isn’t paying attention to what I am saying | 1 2 3 4 5 |
| 9 | Refusing when asked to do something I don’t like doing | 1 2 3 4 5 |
| 10 | Being mugged or robbed by an armed gang | 1 2 3 4 5 |
| 11 | Making new friends | 1 2 3 4 5 |
| 12 | Telling someone that they have hurt my feelings | 1 2 3 4 5 |
| 13 | Having to speak in class, at work, or in a meeting | 1 2 3 4 5 |
| 14 | Maintaining a conversation with someone I’ve just met | 1 2 3 4 5 |
| 15 | Expressing my annoyance to someone that is picking on me | 1 2 3 4 5 |
| 16 | Greeting each person at a social meeting when I don’t know most of them | 1 2 3 4 5 |
| 17 | Being teased in public | 1 2 3 4 5 |
| 18 | Talking to people I don’t know at a party or a meeting | 1 2 3 4 5 |
| 19 | Being asked a question in class by the teacher or by a superior in a meeting | 1 2 3 4 5 |
| 20 | Looking into the eyes of someone I have just met while we are talking | 1 2 3 4 5 |
| 21 | Being asked out by a person I am attracted to | 1 2 3 4 5 |
| 22 | Making a mistake in front of other people | 1 2 3 4 5 |
| 23 | Attending a social event where I know only one person | 1 2 3 4 5 |
| 24 | Starting a conversation with someone of the opposite sex that I like | 1 2 3 4 5 |
| 25 | Being reprimanded about something I have done wrong | 1 2 3 4 5 |
| 26 | While having dinner with colleagues, classmates or workmates, being asked to speak on behalf of the entire group | 1 2 3 4 5 |
| 27 | One of my parents getting seriously ill | 1 2 3 4 5 |
| 28 | Telling someone that their behavior bothers me and asking them to stop | 1 2 3 4 5 |
| 29 | Asking someone I find attractive to dance | 1 2 3 4 5 |
| 30 | Being criticized | 1 2 3 4 5 |
| 31 | Talking to a superior or a person in authority | 1 2 3 4 5 |
| 32 | Telling someone I am attracted to that I would like to get to know them better | 1 2 3 4 5 |
Note on Control Items:
Items 10 and 27 are control items and are not included in the calculation of dimension scores or total questionnaire scores. A response of 1 or 2 on both of these items may indicate that the questionnaire was answered randomly.
Cite this article
mohammad looti (2026). Social Anxiety Questionnaire for Adults (SAQ-A30). PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES. Retrieved from https://scales.arabpsychology.com/s/social-anxiety-questionnaire-for-adults-saq-a30/
mohammad looti. "Social Anxiety Questionnaire for Adults (SAQ-A30)." PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES, 31 Mar. 2026, https://scales.arabpsychology.com/s/social-anxiety-questionnaire-for-adults-saq-a30/.
mohammad looti. "Social Anxiety Questionnaire for Adults (SAQ-A30)." PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES, 2026. https://scales.arabpsychology.com/s/social-anxiety-questionnaire-for-adults-saq-a30/.
mohammad looti (2026) 'Social Anxiety Questionnaire for Adults (SAQ-A30)', PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES. Available at: https://scales.arabpsychology.com/s/social-anxiety-questionnaire-for-adults-saq-a30/.
[1] mohammad looti, "Social Anxiety Questionnaire for Adults (SAQ-A30)," PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES, vol. X, no. Y, ص Z-Z, March, 2026.
mohammad looti. Social Anxiety Questionnaire for Adults (SAQ-A30). PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES. 2026;vol(issue):pages.