Introduction: The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of Self-Monitoring Strategy (SMS) on students' Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD).
Methods: A quasi experimental pre and post-test with control group was Conducted for evaluating effectiveness of the intervention. For this purpose, 30 female students from Tabriz high schools were selected using cluster random sampling and screening methods. Student who received highest score in the initial implementation of the Social Phobia Questionnaire and did not have mental disorders according to SCL-90-R (elementary screening) and were matched in terms of intelligence, were selected. They were randomly divided into two control and experimental groups. After the random assignment of the subjects, the social phobia questionnaire was conducted in the pretest about members of the two groups. Then the experimental group participated in 7 sessions of self-monitoring strategy group training; however, the control group received no intervention. After the treatment sessions, the post-test was performed and one month later the follow up test performed. Then data were analyzed using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA).
Results: The results revealed a significant difference in social phobia symptoms scores of both groups (P ≤ 0.01) and mean scores of social phobia was lower in intervention group than in the control group both at the post test and follow up phases.
Conclusions: This study has implications for psychologists, researchers, parents and teachers in the effective use of self-monitoring technique.