Effectiveness of Immunization Against Stress Group Training on Social Anxiety Symptoms and Mental Health of High School Students

Because college time is coinciding with the period of adolescence; High school students are experiencing major changes in mental health, fear of social situations is one of such problems caused by these changes. Some studies have approved the importance of immunization against stress education on clinical and non-clinical population. The aim of present study was to determine the effectiveness of immunization against stress group training on social anxiety symptoms and mental health of high school students.
This study was a quasi-experimental with a pretest-posttest and a control group. The population of this study included all high school students in Arak city in 2015-16 school year; among which thirty students whose scores on the social anxiety scale and mental health was less than fifty-six and higher than twenty-three, respectively; were randomly selected and assigned to experimental and control groups (fifteen patients in each group) by multi-stage cluster sampling method. After eight sessions (two session per week in a month; forty-five to sixty minutes per session) of educating immunization against stress group training, as pretest and posttest, Jerabek's social anxiety questionnaire(1996) and Goldberg's general health questionnaire(1979), was administered to both groups. Multivariate analysis of covariance used to analyze data in SPSS 20.
Multivariate covariance analysis showed that immunization against stress trainings was effective on reducing symptoms of social anxiety and improving mental health.(P Regarding to the results, it seems; mental health of high school students could be improved and their social anxiety symptoms could be reduced by employing this type of intervention.