Social anxiety symptoms: A cross-cultural study between Lebanon and the UK

The purpose of the study was to compare the frequency of social anxiety symptoms among young adults in Lebanon and young adults in the UK and to investigate the relationship between social anxiety, self-construals, and perceived social norms. A total of 680 young adults (312 from Lebanon and 368 from the UK) between the ages of 17 and 29 years were examined. All participants completed questionnaires used to measure social anxiety symptoms, self-construals, and reactions to perceived social norms. Lebanese young adults scored higher than UK participants on independent and interdependent self-construals. Compared to participants, Lebanese participants showed a greater acceptance of attention seeking behaviors. Though independent self-construal was negatively correlated with social interaction anxiety for both samples, cultural norms were negatively correlated with social anxiety only for the UK sample. The correlation between independent/interdependent self-construals and cultural norms/values was higher in the UK sample.PublishedN/

Psychometric testing of the Arabic version of the patient health questionnaire among adolescent refugees living in Jordan

Refugee youth living in Arab countries have disproportionately higher rates of depression due to the effects of displacement and trauma which makes screening a priority for early intervention. The Patient Health Questionnaire for Adolescents (PHQ‐A) is a reliable and valid scale to assess mental health issues, but its psychometric properties in Arabic refugee populations are unknown. This was a cross‐sectional study conducted between March and Mid‐April 2018, among Arabic refugee adolescents aged 13–18 years living in the Baqa'a United Nations Relief and Works Agency refugee camp in Jordan, to generate an Arabic‐language version of the questionnaire and to test its psychometric properties among adolescent refugees. Five hundred and ninety‐one adolescents completed the PHQ‐A in Arabic. Using SPSS and AMOS version 25, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted and Cronbach's alpha coefficient was computed to assess construct validity and instrument reliability. Multivariate logistic regression analyses assessed the discriminant validity of the PHQ‐A. Although exploratory factor analysis identified the nine items from the original version and explained only 37% of the variance, confirmatory factor analysis supported the one‐factor structure of the PHQ‐A. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the scale was 0.82 and ranged from 0.79 to 0.81 for each item. The Arabic translated version of the Patient Health Questionnaire for Adolescents showed acceptable psychometric properties for use as a screening tool for depression in Arabic adolescent refugees