Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy in Reducing Social Anxiety among Overweight Adolescents

Background and objective: In recent decades, emphasis on diet and thinness has been considered by all social and racial classes. This study aimed to compare the cognitive-behavioral approach's effectiveness and rational-emotional behavior therapy in reducing social anxiety in overweight adolescents. Methods: The research method was quasi-experimental with pre-test and post-test design with the control and two-month follow-up. The statistical population of this study consisted of male and female adolescents who had been referred to clinics in Tehran in 2019 with overweight and obesity problems, among whom 60 were selected by convenience sampling method. After selecting the subjects, they were randomly assigned to experimental and one control groups. Interventions in both groups were group therapy and consisted of eight sessions for 120 minutes. Data were obtained by social anxiety questionnaire and analyzed using repeated-measures ANOVA and SPSS.22 software. The significance level in this study was considered to be 0.05. Results: The results showed that cognitive-behavioral approaches and rational-emotional behavior therapy effectively reduced social anxiety in overweight adolescents (p <0.001). However, there was no significant difference between the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral and rational emotional behavior therapy on social anxiety. Conclusion: It can be concluded that the cognitive-behavioral approach and rational-emotional behavior therapy can have positive effects on reducing social anxiety in adolescents.