Effect of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Young People with Social Anxiety

Anxiety is among the most common psychological symptoms, which is also the cause of most cognitive-behavioral disorders. Social anxiety disorder is one of these disorders. In this type of disorder, individuals are unable to have effective social communication and their interpersonal communication is impaired. Given the high prevalence of social phobia in youth population and that this population is considered as an active population that is also the main factor for making the effort, growth, and development in any society, this study aimed to determine the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) in reducing the symptoms of social anxiety among the young people in Tehran. For this purpose, 16 individuals out of 18-28 year-old young adults, who referred to some of the selected clinics in Tehran, were selected using the convenience sampling method. Then they were randomly divided into experimental and control groups (8 individuals in each group). In this semi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest control group design, the 12-session ACT protocol was used for the subjects in the experimental group, while the subjects in the control group did not receive any intervention. The Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory (SPAI) were used to measure the symptoms of social anxiety. After the data were collected, ANCOVA test was used for data analysis. The results indicate the effectiveness of ACT in reducing the symptoms of social anxiety among young people. Therefore, ACT can have a significant effect on social anxiety by increasing psychological flexibility.