The Effect of Metacognitive Skills Training on Symptoms of Social Anxiety and Demoralization Symptoms In girls With High levels of Coronary Anxiety

Students with coronary anxiety in academic and social life face many challenges in social interactions and psychological practice that require metacognitive skills to overcome them. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the effect of metacognitive skills training on symptoms of social anxiety and demoralization symptoms in girls with high levels of coronary anxiety.

The research was quasi-experimental with pre-test and post-test design with a control group and two-month follow-up period. All-female students with coronary heart disease at the Islamic Azad University of Kermanshah formed the research community. Among them, by purposive sampling and obtaining a score higher than the average in the completed instruments, 30 people were selected and assigned to groups of 15 people. Data were collected using Corona Anxiety Questionnaire (Alipour et al., 1398), Depression Syndrome (Kisan et al., 2004), and Social Anxiety (Connor et al., 2000). For the experimental group, 10 sessions of metacognitive program were performed as weekly one-hour online sessions, but the control group did not receive a program. Data analysis was performed by repeated-measures  of variance.

The experimental and control groups in the pre-test were not significantly different in terms of social anxiety and demoralization symptoms (P>0.05), but in the post-test and follow-up steps this difference was significant in terms of both variables (P<0.05). Metacognitive skills training reduced the demoralization symptoms and social anxiety in the experimental group (P<0.05).

Findings show that metacognitive skills training can be used as a method of choice in patients with coronary heart disease. Therefore, it may be helpful to consider this type of treatment as part of a treatment plan for patients with coronary anxiety disorder.