ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psychology for Clinical Settings
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1572752
Psychometric properties of the Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scalestraightforward items
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of General Psychology, School of Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
- 2Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
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Objectives: The present study evaluated the psychometric properties of the Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale -straightforward items (BFNE-S) within an Italian sample. Specifically, the study was designed to validate the scale factor structure, reliability, concurrent validity, and measurement invariance across sexes.Method: A total of 652 participants (70.71% female and 29.29% males, aged 18-66) completed the BFNE-S and additional related scales including the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS), Social Phobia Scale (SPS), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21), and the SCOFF Questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were conducted to assess for a unidimensional structure, followed by testing of measurement invariance test between sexes.Reliability was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's Omega, and concurrent validity was tested through correlations with related measures.The CFA supported the unidimensional structure of the BFNE-S with excellent fit indices (CFI = 0.998, RMSEA = 0.058). No measurement invariance violations were observed between sexes, despite their frequencies being slightly unbalanced. The BFNE-S demonstrated excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's α = .96, McDonald's ω = .97). There were positive correlations among BFNE-S, the SIAS (ρ = .67), SPS (ρ = .67), as well as with DASS-21 subscales (i.e., depression, anxiety, stress) and SCOFF, and inverse correlations with RSES.The BFNE-S exhibited robust reliability, validity, and measurement invariance across sexes in an Italian sample. Psychometric evidence supports the BFNE-S as a reliable tool for measuring fear of negative evaluation in the nonclinical population, providing a valuable resource for research and clinical assessments.
Keywords: GrBa: Conceptualization, Data Collection, literature review, Writing. GiBo: Design, Writing, Critical review. RNC: Writing, Critical Review. UG: Supervision, analysis
Received: 20 Mar 2025; Accepted: 15 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Baldanzini, Bottesi, Carleton and Granziol. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Umberto Granziol, Department of General Psychology, School of Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
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