Examining the Efficacy of the Unified Transdiagnostic Treatment on Social Anxiety and Positive and Negative Affect in Students

Abstract

Abstract Background: Social anxiety is anextremely harmful disorder affectingmany aspects of life and causes limited capability of encoun- tering social situations among individuals. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of the unified transdiagnostic treatment on social anxiety and positive and negative affect in students. Methods: The statistical population of this study included all female undergraduate studentswith social anxiety in Ahvaz Jundisha- pur University of Medical Sciences. 32 female undergraduate students of medical sciences university of Ahvazwere selected among thosewith social anxiety score of 19 ormore (cut-offscore) throughmultistage randomsamplingmethodandwere randomly placed in experimental and control groups. Social phobia inventory (SPIN) and positive and negative affect schedule (PANAS) were imple- mented on subjects of both groups before and after conducting the intervention. Unified transdiagnostic treatmentwas performed on the experimental group within 8 sessions of 90minutes, but the control group received no intervention. Data were analyzed by multivariate covariance analysis. Results: Results showed a significant difference between experimental and control groups in terms of social anxiety and negative and positive affect, and unified transdiagnostic treatmenthas reduced social anxiety and negative affect and also has increased pos- itive affect in experimental group. Conclusions: Itmay be concluded based on the results of this study that unified transdiagnostic treatment is effective on recovery of social anxiety and negative and positive affects among the students. Therefore, clinical therapists are advised to use this interven- tion.