The Effect of Self-Acceptance Group Therapy on Students with Social Anxiety

Social anxiety is one of the most common psychological disorders that restrict the abilities of the affected people and cause various problems for them in social and performance-related situations. The objective of the present study was to investigate the effect of self-acceptance group therapy (SAGT) on students suffering from social anxiety.

This interventional study employed a pretest-posttest design with one control group and a one-month follow-up. The research population consisted of all students with social anxiety who were studying at the University of Mohaghegh Ardabili during the academic year 2018-2019. Thirty-six students were selected based on their scores on Conor’s Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN) and information from structured interviews and were randomly assigned to the intervention group and control group (each with 18 members). The participants in the intervention group attended ten self-acceptance training sessions, but the participants in the control group did not receive any intervention. In addition to the post-intervention assessment, the participants in both groups underwent a one-month follow-up. Data were analyzed using repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) and independent samples  t-test via SPSS software (version 22).

The results showed that self-acceptance group therapy (SAGT) reduced social anxiety in the intervention group at the posttest and follow-up stages. However, no statistically significant difference was observed in social anxiety reported by the members of the control group at different stages.

The findings of this study confirmed the results of previous studies and has provided the preliminary basis for the use of this treatment. Future studies can further explore the effectiveness of this technique in coping with different issues.