Development of a Parent–Adolescent Relationship Training Program Based on the Lived Experiences of Mothers of Children with Social Anxiety Disorder and Examination of Its Effectiveness on Adolescents’ Social Adjustment, Social Anxiety, and Emotion Regulation
Keywords:
social anxiety, training program, mothers’ lived experiences, parent–adolescent relationship, emotion regulation.Abstract
Objective: The present study aimed to develop a parent–adolescent relationship training program based on the lived experiences of mothers of adolescents with social anxiety disorder and to examine its effectiveness on adolescents’ social adjustment, social anxiety, and emotion regulation.
Methods and Materials: The study employed an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design. In the qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 mothers of adolescents with social anxiety disorder selected through purposeful sampling, and the data were analyzed using Colaizzi’s descriptive phenomenological method, resulting in the extraction of eight main themes and 24 subthemes. Based on these findings, an eight-session parent–adolescent relationship training program was developed and its content validity was evaluated by 20 experts in psychology and counseling. In the quantitative phase, the study used a quasi-experimental pretest–posttest design with a three-month follow-up and a control group. Thirty adolescents aged 12–16 years with social anxiety disorder were selected through convenience sampling and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental group participated in eight weekly 90-minute group sessions for mothers, while the control group received no intervention. Data were collected using the Adolescent Social Anxiety Questionnaire, Social Adjustment Questionnaire, and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. Data analysis was conducted using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA), univariate analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), and paired-samples t-tests with Bonferroni adjustment in SPSS version 26.
Findings: The results of multivariate analysis of covariance demonstrated that the parent–adolescent relationship training program had a significant effect on the linear combination of social adjustment, social anxiety, and emotion regulation variables (Wilks’ lambda = 0.28, F = 21.35, p < .001, η² = 0.72). Univariate analyses indicated that the intervention significantly increased social adjustment (F = 19.55, p < .001, η² = 0.42), significantly reduced social anxiety (F = 43.12, p < .001, η² = 0.62), and significantly improved emotion regulation (F = 12.18, p = .002, η² = 0.31). The results of paired-samples t-tests at the three-month follow-up stage showed no significant differences between posttest and follow-up scores (p > .05), indicating the stability of intervention effects over time.
Conclusion: The findings indicate that a parent–adolescent relationship training program grounded in the lived experiences of mothers can effectively reduce adolescents’ social anxiety while improving social adjustment and emotion regulation. The stability of intervention effects at follow-up suggests that experiential and family-centered educational approaches may create enduring emotional and relational changes within the family system. Therefore, integrating parents’ lived experiences into intervention design may provide a culturally sensitive and practically effective approach for improving psychological functioning among adolescents with social anxiety disorder.
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