Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a debilitating and chronic condition that usually arises in adolescence. Cost-effective interventions provided early on may alter its usually chronic trajectory. This study evaluated changes following a brief cognitive restructuring intervention with 14 adolescent girls, against a waitlist control group, on social anxiety, fear of negative and positive evaluation and negative automatic thoughts. Predictors of post-intervention social anxiety scores were also investigated. Results show that social anxiety fluctuated similarly for both groups. Distinctive significant change was found only for performing in formal social situations following the intervention. Change in frequency of automatic negative thoughts significantly predicted post-intervention social anxiety for measures relating to anxiety when interacting and being observed by others. Cognitive restructuring may provide significant change by altering the content (and not the frequency) of thoughts and, in its current short form, may be relevant to the specific performance type of SAD.

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) usually develops in adolescence and is maintained by avoidance and safety seeking behaviors, which are the focus of behavioral therapy (BT). This work explored the outcomes of a brief group BT for SAD in adolescence, combining exposure with skills training. Fourteen adolescents (aged 14-18 years old) diagnosed with SAD received the intervention. BT was compared to a waiting list condition (n = 10) from pre- to post-intervention; how change in avoidance and safety behaviors predicted post-intervention social anxiety was also tested. Significant improvement was limited to anxiety and avoidance when interacting in new social situations, which may be due to skills training having been focused on general interaction. Only change in avoidance predicted post-intervention social anxiety. Though exploratory, current findings suggest BT to be a relevant approach to SAD. As such, it may inform future more robust studies on interventions tailored to specific core social fears.