Effect of problem solving skill training on social anxiety in unsupervised adolescents living in boarding houses of Kurdistan welfare office

Social anxiety is a common problem in the prime of youth. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of skill training programs in solving social anxiety related problems among the unsupervised adolescents living in the boarding houses of Kurdistan welfare office. This is a quasi-experimental study with comparison of the control and intervention groups before and after training. Before study, subjects were assessed by Libowitz questionnaire, 36 of them got scores of more than 55 and were randomly placed in the intervention and control groups. Training of problem solving skills was performed for the intervention group for twelve 45-minute sessions. The two groups were assessed by means of Libowitz questionnaire. Data were analyzed with SPSS soft ware by use of independent and paired T-tests. The results of this study revealed that mean values for social anxiety in the intervention and control groups were 39±13.9 and 70.43±10.2 respectively which was statistically significant (p<0.0001). We concluded that problem solving training sessions can be effective in the prevention of social anxiety and its consequences and will help adolescents to manage their social problems.