Date of Award:

5-2018

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Education (MEd)

Department:

Psychology

Advisor/Chair:

Donna Gilbertson

Co-Advisor/Chair:

Gretchen Gimpel

Third Advisor:

MaryEllen McClain

Abstract

The demand for effective interventions to address socially anxious behaviors is an important issue for school-based professionals. Several cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) programs have been developed to address these problems specifically in children and adolescents and have been found to be effective in treating youth exhibiting socially anxious behaviors in the clinical setting. Despite the availability of promising clinic-based programs, youth exhibiting socially anxious behaviors rarely receive the attention or treatment that they may need. Moreover, the majority of youth who receive services do so in the school setting where little research has been done in regards to the utility of using these clinic-based programs. Thus, the present study investigated the effect of a brief CBT intervention given in a school-based delivery format on positive peer interactions and self-rating anxiety for four third-grade students with low peer interactions and who are exhibiting socially anxious behaviors. All participants were given four group psycho-educational lessons on how anxiety works, as well as four brief individual exposure sessions. This training specifically targeted social skills at recess. A multiple baseline across the four students showed replicated positive effects of the intervention relative to a prior baseline condition. Results showed that the treatment package provided an increase in positive peer interactions across all four participants.

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