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Social Interaction Anxiety Scale

SIAS
psychologyhealth sciencesFree for research use

A 20-item measure of anxiety in social interaction situations — meeting and talking with others — designed as a companion to the Social Phobia Scale.

Items
20
Response format
5-point scale (0-4)
Version
1.0

Ready-to-cite methods sentence

Social interaction anxiety was measured with the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS; Mattick & Clarke, 1998), a 20-item measure with excellent internal consistency (α ≈ .93).

Reliability & validation

Validation population
Community and clinical samples (Mattick & Clarke, 1998)
Test–retest
0.92
Cronbach's α
0.93

Response anchors

Not at all characteristic of me · Slightly characteristic of me · Moderately characteristic of me · Very characteristic of me · Extremely characteristic of me

Known limitations

Covers interaction anxiety specifically, not performance or scrutiny fears (its companion Social Phobia Scale covers those); the reverse-worded items perform poorly and are dropped in some short forms.

Original citation

Mattick, R. P., Clarke, J. C. (1998). Development and validation of measures of social phobia scrutiny fear and social interaction anxiety. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 36(4), 455-470.

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7967(97)10031-6

Questions researchers ask

What does the SIAS measure?

A 20-item measure of anxiety in social interaction situations — meeting and talking with others — designed as a companion to the Social Phobia Scale.

How many items does the SIAS have?

The Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) has 20 items.

Is the SIAS free to use?

The SIAS is free to use for non-commercial academic research. You don't need to pay a license fee, but you should always cite the original publication.

Is the SIAS reliable?

Validation studies report Cronbach's α of 0.93, test–retest reliability of 0.92. See the reliability section for the population studied and full statistics.

Who developed the SIAS, and how do I cite it?

Mattick, R. P., Clarke, J. C. (1998). Development and validation of measures of social phobia scrutiny fear and social interaction anxiety. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 36(4), 455-470. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7967(97)10031-6

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Library entry verified July 2026. Metadata is provided for reference; item wording is available inside Folio Surveyor, subject to each instrument's licensing.