The Effectiveness of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program in Improving Mindfulness and Assertiveness in Students with Social Anxiety

Background and

Aim: Social anxiety is associated with various variables such as mindfulness. Given the effectiveness of the mindfulness-based stress reduction program in improving clinical problems, psychological symptoms, and quality of life of people with social anxiety, and the importance of addressing this variable in their lives, the present study aimed to examine the effectiveness of the mindfulness-based stress reduction program in improving mindfulness and assertiveness in students with social anxiety.

Methods: The research was a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design with a control group. The statistical population consisted of all female students of Islamic Azad University of Kashan and 30 of them, who were suffering from social anxiety according to the social phobia inventory (SPI) by Conveyor (2000), were selected by the purposive sampling method, and 15 individuals were randomly assigned to the experimental group and 15 to the control group. The experimental group underwent 8 sessions of mindfulness-based stress reduction program training. The research tools included the Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory (2006), and the Gambrill and Richey Assertion Inventory (1975) which were implemented at two stages of before the research and after the sessions. The analysis of covariance and SPSS22 were used to analyze data.

Results: The results of statistical analyses indicated that the level of mindfulness (P<0.05, and F=7.401) and assertiveness (P<0.05 and F=12.586) of the students had a statistically acceptable increase.

Conclusion: According to the results, mindfulness-based stress reduction training increased and improved mindfulness and assertiveness in students with social anxiety.