Social skill-based treatment for social anxiety disorder in adolescents

Abstract

Adolescents with social anxiety disorder (SAD) experience significant social anxiety and frequently avoid social situations. Additionally, many adolescents with SAD have social skill deficits, which could suggest that interventions solely targeting reductions in social anxiety may not result in enhanced social functioning. Thus, improving social skill is an important target in treatment protocols for adolescent SAD. Social skills training (SST) involves the use of various behavioral methods to establish, modify, and improve social skill in this group. Many successful interventions for adolescents with SAD incorporate a SST component. In this chapter, we discuss social skill-based interventions for SAD, including Cognitive-Behavioral Group Therapy for Adolescents and Social Effectiveness Therapy for Children. These interventions have demonstrated efficacy in reducing social anxiety and improving social skill in socially anxious adolescents. We also discuss important caveats that are present in current SST paradigms that limit their success and utility both in and outside of the university setting. Finally, future directions for social skill-based treatments are discussed.