Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

People with social anxiety disorder (SAD) experience an intense fear of negative evaluation (e.g., embarrassment, rejection) in one or more social situations, which can severely disrupt their day-to-day activities. Cognitive behavioural group therapy (CBGT) is effective for reducing SAD symptoms. Group cohesion (the attraction or belonging members feel for their group) is important for reducing SAD symptoms in CBGT. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, many CBGT programs are now delivered via videoconference. SAD symptom reduction, group cohesion development, and their relationship have not yet been effectively studied in videoconference CBGT. Elements of videoconference treatment may pose a challenge for developing group cohesion (e.g., lack of non-verbal communication), but other factors (e.g., videoconference interactions now being common in daily life) may mean that group cohesion is not impeded. The present study aims to determine if videoconference and in-person CBGT for SAD groups experience similarly reduced symptoms and increased group cohesion. We will also explore whether group cohesion impacts symptom reduction in these groups. SAD patients will be randomly assigned to complete a 12-week CBGT program either in-person or via videoconference and will complete self-report questionnaires to measure group cohesion and social anxiety symptoms throughout treatment. We expect that the videoconference and in-person CBGT for SAD groups will not differ in their SAD symptom reduction, group cohesion development, or ability for group cohesion to predict symptom reduction. These results would imply that videoconference is an effective delivery method for CBGT for SAD and that group cohesion remains important for successful treatment outcomes in videoconference treatment.