The effectiveness of mindfulness-based education on reducing the signs and symptoms of social phobia in adolescent girls

Abstract

Background and Aim: This study was aimed to determine the effectiveness of mindfulness-based education on reducing the signs and symptoms of social phobia in adolescent girls. Methods: The method of the present study was quasi-experimental with a pretest-posttest design with a control group. The statistical population of this study included all female students in district 1 of Tehran who are studying in high school in the academic year of 2015-2016. After the examination of the study population, first, by preparing a list of high schools for girls in district one of Tehran, three schools were selected by random cluster sampling. And then, a social phobia questionnaire was administered among the students, and the students who scored higher (according to the clinical cut-off point criterion) in this test were selected as a research sample of 30 people using a random sampling method. And they were placed in two study and control groups with 15 people in each group. After implementing a social phobia questionnaire on both control and study groups, the members of the study group participated in mindfulness training sessions for 8 sessions and 90 minutes each session. None of the members of the control group participated in mindfulness training sessions. At the end of the training course, the social phobia questionnaire was administered again to both groups. The data obtained from pre-test-post-test were analyzed by multivariate analysis of variance using Spss-23 software. Results: The results showed that mindfulness training reduced the  subscales of fear (P=0.001, F=25.80), (P=0.001, F=18.27) avoidance and physiological distress (P=0.001, F=21.96). Conclusion: Because mindfulness training is effective in reducing phobic signs and symptoms; This type of  training can be used to reduce the signs and symptoms of social phobia in adolescents.