Comparison of the efficacy of cognitive-behavioral and emotion-focused therapies on social anxiety and emotional regulation of music students

Studies have shown that social anxiety has a high prevalence among students. Some researches have introduced difficulty in emotional regulation as one of the factors related to social anxiety. Social anxiety and difficulty in emotional regulation not only lead to a decrease in students' academic achievements, but can also affect other psychological and social aspects of their lives. So far, there has been no research that investigates the effectiveness of two types of cognitive-behavioral and emotion-focused therapy in reducing the symptoms of social anxiety and improving the emotional regulation of students.

The present study was conducted with the aim of comparing the efficacy of two types of cognitive-behavioral and Emotion-Focused therapy on social anxiety and emotional regulation of music students of the University of Arts.

The design of the current research was semi-experimental, of pre-test, post-test type with a control group. The statistical population of the current research was all undergraduate music students referred to the counseling center of Tehran University of Art in 2020. From this statistical population, a number of 45 people were selected in a targeted manner from the available type and were randomly assigned in three groups of 15 people (cognitive-behavioral therapy, Emotion-Focused therapy and control). In the cognitive-behavioral therapy intervention sessions from the cognitive-behavioral therapy protocol (Davoudi, Manshaee, & Golparvar, 2018) and in the emotion-focused therapy intervention sessions from the Johnson therapy protocol (2004) and to collect data from the social anxiety scale (Connor et al., 2000) And the Emotion Regulation questionnaire (Garnefski, Kraaij & Spinhoven, 2002) was used. Covariance analysis and SPSS26 software were used for data analysis.

The findings of the present study showed that both types of cognitive-behavioral and emotion-focused therapy were effective in reducing the symptoms of social anxiety and improving the emotional regulation ability of students. Cognitive-behavioral therapy was more effective in reducing the symptoms of social anxiety and emotion-focused therapy was more effective in improving emotional regulation. (P<0.01).

Based on the findings of the current research, it can be concluded that both types of cognitive-behavioral and emotion-focused therapy have been effective in reducing the symptoms of social anxiety and improving the emotional regulation of students, but in the field of problems related to thoughts and cognitive aspects, cognitive therapy - Behavior is more effective and in the field of issues where emotion is the most important factor, emotion-focused therapy is more efficient and effective.