Zeinab Heidarian Fard; Babollah Bakhshipour; Mahboubeh Faramarzi
Abstract
The aim of this research was to analyze the effectiveness of the cognitive-behavioral group therapy on social anxiety, social self-efficiency and rumination of female students. This was an experimental study (pre-test, post-test and follow-up with control group plan). By using a simple random sampling ...
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The aim of this research was to analyze the effectiveness of the cognitive-behavioral group therapy on social anxiety, social self-efficiency and rumination of female students. This was an experimental study (pre-test, post-test and follow-up with control group plan). By using a simple random sampling method, out of 338 female students with the age range of 20-29 using Watson & Friend Social Anxiety Questionnaire (SAQ), Self-efficiency Questionnaire for Social Situations (SESS) and Rumination Responses Scale (RRS) and the eligible individuals diagnostic interview(having social anxiety diagnostic cut-off score) based on DSM-IV-TR,16 subjects have been selected and randomly placed in two groups of experimental and control (8 for each group).The experimental group received 8 cognitive-behavioral group therapy sessions, but control group did not undergo any special treatment. Two months after treatment termination, follow-up has been conducted. Subjects in both groups before and after the intervention, and two-month follow-up questionnaire, SAQ, SESS, RRS completed. To analyze data, descriptive statistical methods and covariance analysis test have been applied. The covariance analysis test results showed that there was a meaningful difference between the mean scores of social anxiety, social self-efficiency and rumination of the two groups (control& experiment). Also, results showed a significant difference in a two-month follow-up (p<0.05). Regarding the mentioned findings, it can be concluded that the cognitive-behavioral group therapy is effective in reducing social anxiety and rumination and increasing social self-efficiency of female students with social anxiety disorder and the changes created almost remained stable after a two-month follow up