The Effectiveness of Parent-Child Cognitive-Behavioral Program on Children's Social Anxiety

Social anxiety is one type of anxiety disorders which disrupts academic, social and family functions and often goes through a chronic course that may continue into adulthood. The aim of the present study was to measure the effectiveness of parent-child cognitive and behavioral program on children's social anxiety. The research population was primary school boys in Karaj city, Alborz province. Sampling was done through multi-stage clustering and six schools were randomly selected. Tools for measuring child and parent anxiety were Spence scale and social anxiety scale. Twenty-four students whose social anxiety score was close to the cut-off line were selected with their parents. Leibovitz's questionnaire was administered to students with the coordination of the school. The experimental group received 13 therapy sessions during 13 weeks. The results of repeated measures ANOVA showed that the parent-child cognitive and behavioral program is effective and has a lasting effect on children's social anxiety (p <0.01). Based on the results, it is suggested to use the designed protocol to reduce children's social anxiety.