The effectiveness of emotional schema therapy on psychological distress, quality of life, and cognitive emotion regulation in adolescents with social anxiety disorder

The present study was conducted with the aim of determining the effectiveness of emotional schema therapy on psychological distress, quality of life, and cognitive emotion regulation in adolescents with social anxiety disorder. The research method was quasi-experimental with a pretest-posttest design with a control group. The statistical population of the research was all the anxious high school students in the academic year 2022-2023 who were referred to one of the psychological counseling and service centers in Ahvaz. The sample size consisted of 30 anxious students who were selected by available and purposeful (targeted) sampling method and according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria of the study.  The experimental group received ten sessions of 120 minutes per week, and the control group was placed on the waiting list. Before and after the intervention, the members of the experimental and control groups answered psychological distress, quality of life, and cognitive regulation of emotion questionnaires.  Data were analyzed by using SPSS software version 22. The result of multivariate and univariate covariance analysis showed that there was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of psychological distress, quality of life, and cognitive emotion regulation in adolescents with social anxiety disorder (p <0.001). In other words, emotional schema therapy reduced psychological distress and increased quality of life and cognitive regulation of emotion.