The Fear of Being Laughed at, Social Anxiety, and Paranoid Ideation: A Multilevel Confirmatory Factor Analysis of Multitrait-Multimethod Data

The GELOPH-15 is a self-report measure that assesses individual differences in the fear of being laughed at (i.e., gelotophobia), a relatively understudied but important trait that is closely related to social anxiety. Using a multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) approach, the convergent and discriminant validity of the GELOPH-15 scale was examined based on 217 self- and 651 peer ratings (of three close acquaintances per target) of the traits gelotophobia, social anxiety, and paranoid ideation. Participants completed the Spanish versions of the GELOPH-15, the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale, and the Paranoia Scale. Applying MTMM models of multilevel confirmatory factor analyses (ML-CFA-MTMM) revealed relatively high associations between the self- and peer ratings, supporting the convergent validity of the GELOPH-15. Discriminant validity analyses confirmed the expected relationship patterns of gelotophobia with social anxiety and paranoid ideation (i.e., strong, but not perfect associations). The results showed that the ML-CFA-MTMM models might be a useful tool for analyzing the convergent and discriminant validity based on self- and peer ratings.