Emotion Recognition Training for Socially Anxious Adolescents: A Randomized Controlled Trial
试验速览
- 阶段
- 不适用
- 状态
- 已完成
- 入组人数
- 115
- 主要终点
- Change from baseline in social anxiety at post-intervention
研究概览
简要总结
While it has been hypothesised that individuals who experience social anxiety are more likely to misread facial emotions as threatening or disapproving, researchers have proposed that the difficulty may lie in decoding ambiguous facial expressions rather than identifying emotions which are expressed with greater intensity. Emotion recognition (ER) training provides a promising new avenue of research which may be beneficial in altering emotion processing biases which maintain or increase symptoms of mental health disorders. This study will examine the effectiveness of ER training in a community-based sample of young people (15-18 years) who report high levels of social anxiety. The intervention aims to alter emotion processing biases through a training procedure designed to promote the perception of happiness over disgust in ambiguous facial expressions which we hypothesise will subsequently reduce symptoms of social anxiety.
The study design consists of two phases. During Phase 1 participants will complete a screening questionnaire. This questionnaire will include a measure of the affective, cognitive, and behavioural components of social anxiety in adolescence. Depending on their suitability (i.e. scoring above a cut-off on a standardised measure of social anxiety in Phase 1 of the study), participants may then be invited to take part in a 4-day computer-based emotion recognition training programme (Phase 2). The purpose of this phase is to see if ER training will help young people feel less worried or nervous in social situations by training them to interpret ambiguous facial expressions as expressing a positive emotion (happy rather than disgusted).
Participants will be randomly assigned to either the intervention or placebo (inactive) group. Both groups will be asked to complete a 4-day programme involving one computer training session per day (each session takes approximately 20 minutes). Questionnaires will also be given to participants to complete before and after the intervention, along with a 2-week follow-up assessment. These will include questionnaires to measure social anxiety, depressive symptoms, and fear of negative evaluation. Each questionnaire will take approximately 15 minutes to complete. Participants will not know whether they have received the intervention or placebo training until after the intervention.
详细描述
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is among the most prevalent mental disorders in adolescence, 10% of females and 5% of males are diagnosed with SAD in adolescence. SAD is characterised by marked fear or anxiety about social situations in which the individual is exposed to possible scrutiny by others. SAD is associated with social isolation, poor social skills, low self-esteem, and future comorbid mental disorders. Social anxiety typically develops during adolescence, thus there is a need to detect and treat it early prior to the development of a clinically-diagnosed SAD. Most early interventions for social anxiety have used Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), which focuses on modifying explicit verbal cognitions. However, many adolescents do not have access to CBT and many finding it demanding.
Research suggests that individuals who have high levels of social anxiety are more likely to misread facial emotions as threatening or disapproving, and researchers have proposed that the difficulty may lie in decoding low intensity facial expressions rather than identifying facial emotions which are expressed with greater intensity. In social anxiety, a bias towards perceiving ambiguous facial expressions as negative may give rise to avoidant behaviour and maintain or increase symptoms; therefore, this emotion processing bias may be a powerful bias for researchers to target with the aim of developing interventions to reduce symptoms.
ER training provides a promising new line of research which may be beneficial in altering emotion processing biases which maintain or increase symptoms of mental health disorders. Research has shown that ER training may be effective in reducing depressive symptoms in analogue populations with high levels of depression and anger and aggressive behaviour in healthy adults and adolescent youth at high risk of criminal offending and delinquency.
Present Study:
This research tests the effectiveness of ER training in reducing social anxiety in adolescents. Given that the age of onset of social anxiety is adolescence, peaking in late teens, this research focuses on 15-18 year olds.
研究设计
- 研究类型
- Interventional
- 分配方式
- Randomized
- 干预模型
- Parallel
- 主要目的
- Treatment
- 盲法
- Triple (Participant, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
入排标准
- 年龄范围
- 15 Years 至 18 Years（Child, Adult）
- 性别
- All
- 接受健康志愿者
- 是
入选标准
- •Those who score above the cut-off on the SPAI-C
排除标准
- •Those with a diagnosed mental health disorder
- •Those who are currently attending a mental health professional
- •Those scoring below the cut-off on the SPAI-C
- •Those who decline to participate
- •Those whose parents/guardians do not provide written consent
结局指标
主要结局
Change from baseline in social anxiety at post-intervention
时间窗: Pre-intervention (day 1), post-intervention (day 4)
A 26-item self-report questionnaire to measure social anxiety - Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children (SPAI-C; Biedel et al., 1998)
次要结局
- Change from baseline in emotion sensitivity measurement at post-intervention and 2-week follow-up(Pre-intervention (day 1), post-intervention (day 4), 2-week follow-up post-intervention)
- Change from baseline in fear of negative evaluation at post-intervention and 2-week follow-up(Pre-intervention (day 1), post-intervention (day 4), and 2-week follow-up)
- Change from baseline in social anxiety at 2-week follow-up(Pre-intervention (day 1), 2-week follow-up post-intervention)
- Change from baseline in depression symptoms at post-intervention and 2-week follow-up(Pre-intervention (day 1), post-intervention (day 4), and 2-week follow-up)
- Change from baseline in anxiety related disorders at post-intervention and 2-week follow-up(Pre-intervention (day 1), post-intervention (week 4), and 2-week follow-up)
研究者
Dr. Amanda Fitzgerald
Lecturer
University College Dublin