INTRODUCTION: There has been a growing interest in the study of social phobia, mainly among young people, which demands self-report instruments to identify the disorder. In this study a cross-cultural adaptation of the Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN) was carried out to be used with Brazilian adolescent students. METHODS: The adaptation process was conducted in four stages: translation; back translation; critical appraisal of the versions to develop a consensual version; and commented pretest. RESULTS: The results of the four stages and the final version are showed for each item of the instrument. DISCUSSION: The use of more than one translation and back translation is important to allow the comparison of the items, detection of errors and thus choose more appropriate terms. The commented pretest performed in a group similar to the target population allows a better adequacy of the instrument to the population to which it will be applied. CONCLUSION: Instruments developed in a foreign language need a careful cross-cultural adaptation process in order to be used in a different reality.
Phobic disorders; translation; questionnaire; SPIN; social phobia
