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The SPIN is the most widely used brief screen for Social Anxiety Disorder (formerly Social Phobia) in both research and clinical practice. Use it when the presenting concern is social-evaluative anxiety — public speaking fear, performance anxiety, fear of being watched or judged, avoidance of social situations.

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What it measures

Social anxiety severity over the past week across three symptom clusters:
  • Fear — of authority figures, parties, public speaking, embarrassment
  • Avoidance — of social situations, being the center of attention
  • Physiological arousal — sweating, blushing, racing heart in social situations
Seventeen items, each rated on a 0–4 scale (Not at all / A little bit / Somewhat / Very much / Extremely).

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When to use it

  • Differential screening when social anxiety is suspected. GAD-7 will under-read social anxiety because it’s specific to generalized worry; SPIN picks up what GAD-7 misses.
  • Pre/post CBT for SAD. Social anxiety CBT protocols (Clark & Wells, Heimberg) use SPIN routinely as the outcome measure.
  • Pre/post exposure-based protocols. Where the target is specific social situations.
  • Outcome tracking in SAD-focused treatment. Track response across the course of treatment.
For rapid re-screening between sessions, the Mini-SPIN (a three-item subset of SPIN) is available in the literature — Rivet uses the full 17-item SPIN.

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How clients fill it

About three minutes. The instrument asks the client to rate how much each statement bothered them over the past week, with the same 0–4 scale on every item.

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How Rivet scores it

The total is the sum of all 17 items, each scored 0–4. Range: 0–68. The score appears live in your scoring pill as the client answers.

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Severity bands

TotalBand
0–20None / sub-clinical
21–30Mild SAD
31–40Moderate SAD
41–50Severe SAD
51–68Very severe SAD

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Clinical cutoff

A score of 19 or higher indicates probable Social Anxiety Disorder (Connor 2000). This is the cutoff most commonly used in the SAD literature for screening and outcome research; Rivet surfaces it in the scoring pill when crossed. A client whose score crosses 19 is in the territory where SAD is the likely diagnosis pending interview — not a confirmation, but a clear signal to follow up with diagnostic conversation and consider SAD-specific treatment.

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How SPIN fits with the other anxiety measures

  • GAD-7 captures generalized worry — uncontrollable, excessive, about many things. Doesn’t read social-evaluative anxiety well.
  • SPIN captures social-evaluative anxiety — fear of being watched, judged, embarrassed in public.
  • PCL-5 captures trauma-related anxiety, hypervigilance, intrusion.
If a client’s anxiety is clearly driven by social situations rather than generalized worry, SPIN is the right measure. If it’s both, administer both — they cover different ground.

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Subscale structure

The SPIN has a documented three-factor structure (fear / avoidance / physiological arousal) in Connor 2000, but the dominant clinical convention is to use a single total score. Rivet surfaces only the total per that convention.

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When NOT to use it

  • Clients under 18. Validated in adults; the SPAI-C is the age-appropriate version for children and adolescents (not included under this ID).
  • As a sole diagnostic instrument. Screening, not diagnosis. A SPIN of 35 means the client’s self-report falls in the moderate SAD range on this instrument; the clinical interview is what makes the diagnosis.
  • When the anxiety is generalized rather than social. Use GAD-7 instead. SPIN will under-read non-social anxiety.

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Citation

Connor, K. M., Davidson, J. R. T., Churchill, L. E., Sherwood, A., Foa, E., & Weisler, R. H. (2000). “Psychometric properties of the Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN): New self-rating scale.” British Journal of Psychiatry, 176: 379–386. Free clinical use. Rivet preserves canonical item wording verbatim.

GAD-7

The generalized anxiety companion — different cluster from social anxiety.

PHQ-9

Depression baseline, often paired alongside anxiety screening.

Screening overview

When to screen and how to pick between overlapping anxiety measures.