The Mini-SPIN is a three-item screening measure for generalised social anxiety disorder (social phobia). Its items, drawn from the 17-item Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN), capture the core of the condition: fear of embarrassment, avoidance driven by that fear, and fear of being humiliated in front of others. Each item is rated on a five-point scale from 0 (not at all) to 4 (extremely) for the past week, giving a total of 0 to 12.
It is a screen, not a diagnostic or severity instrument. A score of 6 or more indicates probable generalised social anxiety disorder and should prompt a fuller assessment: a diagnostic interview or a full-length measure such as the SPIN or the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale. Because social anxiety is common, treatable and frequently missed in primary care, a three-item screen with strong negative predictive value is its main clinical contribution.
02 - Origin & purpose
Where it comes from.
The Mini-SPIN was developed by Kathryn Connor, Kenneth Kobak, Jonathan Davidson and colleagues, published in 2001 in Depression and Anxiety. Starting from the 17-item SPIN (Connor et al., 2000), the authors identified the three items that best discriminated people with generalised social anxiety disorder from controls, then tested the resulting screen in a managed-care population of over 7,000 patients as part of an epidemiological study.
The purpose was pragmatic: social anxiety disorder is among the most common anxiety disorders yet is rarely volunteered as a presenting complaint, and a full SPIN is too long for routine screening in waiting rooms and primary care. The Mini-SPIN has since been validated in treatment-seeking, student, primary-care and population samples, including a German population study that produced general-population norms.
03 - Scoring & cutoffs
How scoring works.
Three items rated 0-4 for the past week are summed to a total of 0-12. The validated cutoff is 6 or more, indicating probable generalised social anxiety disorder. In the original managed-care validation this cutoff identified cases with about 90% accuracy. A positive screen is not a diagnosis: prevalence in most settings means around half of positive screens will not have the disorder on interview (positive predictive value 52.5% in the original study), while a negative screen makes the disorder unlikely (negative predictive value 98.5%).
Score
Severity
Interpretation
0–5
Below cutoff
Below the screening threshold for social anxiety disorder.
6–12
At or above cutoff
At or above the cutoff (6 or more). Suggestive of generalised social anxiety disorder; further assessment is recommended.
04 - Validation evidence
How well it performs.
In Connor and colleagues' original validation (n = 7,165 managed-care patients), the cutoff of 6 or more showed sensitivity 88.7%, specificity 90.0% and overall diagnostic accuracy of about 90% against clinical diagnosis of generalised social anxiety disorder. Weeks et al. (2007) replicated strong internal consistency and sensitivity at the same cutoff in a treatment-seeking sample, though specificity was weaker there, as expected where nearly everyone is symptomatic. Seeley-Wait et al. (2009) confirmed good sensitivity, specificity and predictive values at the cutoff of 6. The German population validation (Wiltink et al., 2017) reported Cronbach's alpha 0.83 in the clinical sample, supported the same cutoff of 6 by ROC analysis, and found sensitivity to change comparable to the much longer Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale.
88.7%
Sensitivity
At the cutoff of 6 or more (Connor et al., 2001)
90.0%
Specificity
At the cutoff of 6 or more; overall diagnostic accuracy about 90% (Connor et al., 2001)
PPV 52.5% / NPV 98.5%
Predictive values
In a managed-care population of 7,165 patients (Connor et al., 2001)
alpha 0.83
Internal consistency
Clinical sample; test-retest rho 0.61 (Wiltink et al., 2017)
05 - How it compares
How it compares to the alternatives.
Instrument
Items
Time
When to reach for it
SPIN (Social Phobia Inventory)
17
5 min
Full severity measure covering fear, avoidance and physiological arousal; licensed (permission required).
LSAS (Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale)
24
10-20 min
Detailed fear and avoidance profile across situations; the common trial endpoint.
-Rapid screening for social anxiety disorder in primary care, intake questionnaires and waiting rooms
-Ruling out generalised social anxiety when the screen is negative (high negative predictive value)
-Case-finding in populations where social anxiety is easily missed, such as adolescents and young adults presenting with depression
Reach for something else when
-Confirming a diagnosis: a positive screen needs a diagnostic interview
-Measuring severity or treatment response in detail: use the full SPIN or LSAS
-Distinguishing social anxiety from other anxiety disorders: pair with a broader measure such as the GAD-7
-Screening for performance-only social anxiety: the items target the generalised subtype
07 - Confidence & precision
Reading the score with care.
No standard error of measurement or minimally important change threshold has been established for the Mini-SPIN. With only three items and a 0-12 range, small shifts are within measurement noise (test-retest rho 0.61 in the German population study); treat it as a screen rather than a change measure, and re-screen rather than track scores. The German validation did find sensitivity to change comparable to the LSAS at group level, but individual-level change interpretation is not supported.
08 - Limitations
What it cannot tell you.
A positive screen carries a roughly 50% false-positive rate in ordinary prevalence settings and always needs diagnostic confirmation. Three items cannot map symptom breadth, subtype or impairment.
Specificity drops in treatment-seeking samples and test-retest stability is moderate. The instrument is copyrighted, and reproduction of item text requires the copyright holder's permission, which limits how it can be embedded in tools and documentation.
09 - Licensing, explained
How licensing works.
The SPIN and the derived Mini-SPIN are copyright Jonathan Davidson, all rights reserved. Reproduction of item text requires written permission from the copyright holder (mail@cd-risc.com). This page's brief therefore describes the instrument without reproducing its items.
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