Seyede Fazileh Alboushoke; Sahar Safarzadeh; Fariba Hafezi; Parvin Ehteshamzadeh
Abstract
Background: Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is highly prevalent among adolescent girls and significantly interferes with their social and emotional development. It can lead to impaired coping mechanisms and maladaptive behaviors, such as anxiety sensitivity and body checking. This study aimed to evaluate ...
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Background: Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is highly prevalent among adolescent girls and significantly interferes with their social and emotional development. It can lead to impaired coping mechanisms and maladaptive behaviors, such as anxiety sensitivity and body checking. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of Emotional Schema Therapy (EST) in mitigating anxiety sensitivity and body checking behaviors among adolescent girls with SAD.Methods: A quasi-experimental design with a pretest-posttest-two months follow-up assessment was employed. The study participants were 25 adolescent girls aged 15 to 18 years with a diagnosis of SAD in the city of Ramshir, Iran, in 2023. Adolescent girls in the experimental group participated in ten weekly, 90-minute Emotional Schema Therapy sessions. The participants were selected using a multi-stage cluster random sampling technique and completed standardized measures of social phobia, anxiety sensitivity, and body checking behaviors at the beginning, end, and follow-up of the intervention. To analyze the data, repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted using SPSS version 27.Results: Participants in the EST group exhibited a significant reduction in anxiety sensitivity (pretest: 53.80±2.85; posttest: 34.67±3.01; follow-up: 35.00±3.35) and body checking behaviors (pretest: 85.67±3.63; posttest: 50.87±4.24; follow-up: 49.47±3.50) over time (P<0.001). The positive effects of EST on anxiety sensitivity and body checking behaviors were maintained at follow-up (P<0.001).Conclusions: The findings suggested that EST can be an effective intervention for reducing anxiety sensitivity and body checking behaviors in adolescent girls with SAD.
Sedigheh Sakkaki; Farah Naderi; Fariba Hafezi
Abstract
Background: The diagnosis of cervical cancer significantly affects the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of women. This study aimed to investigate the relationships between chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and experiential avoidance (EA) with HRQOL, mediated by depression in women with cervical cancer.Methods: ...
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Background: The diagnosis of cervical cancer significantly affects the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of women. This study aimed to investigate the relationships between chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and experiential avoidance (EA) with HRQOL, mediated by depression in women with cervical cancer.Methods: This descriptive-correlational study selected 261 cervical cancer cases in Mashhad, Iran in 2021, using purposive sampling from October 10, 2021 to December 24, 2021. The research tools include the SF-36 Questionnaire, the Chalder Fatigue Scale, the Brief Experiential Avoidance Questionnaire, and Beck Depression Inventory. Data analysis was done using Pearson correlation coefficient and structural equation modeling in SPSS version 27 and AMOS version 24.Results: The results indicated that all direct paths, with the exception of CFS, significantly correlated with HRQOL (P<0.001). Depression mediated the significant indirect paths of CFS to HRQOL and the significant relationship between EA and HRQOL (P<0.001).Conclusions: The findings of this study revealed that CFS and EA were negatively related to HRQOL in women with cervical cancer. Moreover, depression mediated the relationship of CFS and EA with HRQOL.
Parichehr Sadr Nafisi; zahra Eftekhar Saadi; Fariba Hafezi; Alireza Heidari
Abstract
Background: Anxiety disorders are psychiatric illnesses that are most common in developing countries. Obesity is thought to be a risk factor for anxiety and intimate relationship disorders. The aim of the present paper was to investigate the effect of compassion-focused therapy on social anxiety and ...
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Background: Anxiety disorders are psychiatric illnesses that are most common in developing countries. Obesity is thought to be a risk factor for anxiety and intimate relationship disorders. The aim of the present paper was to investigate the effect of compassion-focused therapy on social anxiety and interpersonal relationships among women on an overweight diet 2019-2020.Methods: The study research design was quasi-experimental with a control group, pre-test, and post-test. We narrowed down 100 women according to the inclusion criteria; among them, we randomly selected 30 women on an overweight diet referring to the diet therapy clinics in Tehran province from December 2019 to April 2020. Afterwards, they were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental group (n=15) was treated with compassion-focused therapy for ten weekly 90-minute sessions while the control group (n=15) did not receive any treatment. At the start of the study, after 10 weeks, all participants were tested using the Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN) and the Revised Communication Skills Questionnaire (RCSQ) methods. In addition to descriptive statistics, we used Chi-squared, independent, and dependent t tests to interpret the results; we employed the SPSS-25 program for all the analyses.Results: According to Mean±SD, there was a significant difference between the experimental (1.41±0.03) and control (2.01±0.43) groups regarding social anxiety and regarding interpersonal relationships there was a significant difference between the experimental (2.50±0.21) and control (1.83±0.21) groups, respectively. The experimental group had significantly lower post-test scores in terms of social anxiety (P=0.04) and interpersonal relationships (P=0.001). Moreover, there was a significant change in the experimental group from the pre-test to the post-test concerning all components of social anxiety (P=0.001) and interpersonal relationships (P=0.001).Conclusion: The findings showed that compassion-focused therapy could help with overweightness. Therefore, this intervention program is recommended for preventing social anxiety and interpersonal relationships among women on an overweight diet.
Safieh Mohammadi; Fariba Hafezi; Parvin Ehteshamzadeh; Zahra Eftekhar Saadi; Saeed Bakhtiarpour
Abstract
Background: Marital conflicts bring about issues in marital relationships and increase the divorce rate. Sexual skill training can prevent some of the marital conflicts and sexual problems in women. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of schema therapy on sexual self-esteem in the women ...
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Background: Marital conflicts bring about issues in marital relationships and increase the divorce rate. Sexual skill training can prevent some of the marital conflicts and sexual problems in women. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of schema therapy on sexual self-esteem in the women involved in marital conflicts in Ahvaz. Methods: The study design was quasi-experimental. The study population comprised all women with marital conflicts who referred to the psychological centers of Ahvaz in 2019; using convenience sampling, we selected 30 women willing to participate in the project and randomly divided them into experimental (n=15) and control (n=15) groups. The research instrument included Marital Conflict Questionnaire (MCQ) and Sexual Self-Esteem Index for Woman-Short Form (SSEI-W-SF). The experimental group underwent eight sessions (90-minute sessions per week) of schema therapy. The follow-up was performed after 30 days. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 24. Results: In terms of sexual self-esteem, there was no significant difference between the experimental and control groups in the pre-test stage. Schema therapy effectively increased sexual self-esteem in women involved in marital conflicts in the experimental group (p <0.001). The mean pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental group were 106.26±8.05 and 128.76±6.77, respectively, which increased compared to the pre-test (107.13±6.71) and post-test (108.46±8.97) of the control group. Conclusions: Schema therapy can be employed to improve self-esteem in women involved in marital conflicts. In this way, the conflicts among couples and other family members can be reduced.
Masoumeh Dehdashti Lesani; Behnam Makvandi; Farah Naderi; Fariba Hafezi
Abstract
Background: Quality of life is a multidimensional and dynamic concept that can be assessed based on the differences between expectations and reality level. The present study aimed to investigate the mediating role of social anxiety in the causal relationships of alexithymia and social intelligence with ...
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Background: Quality of life is a multidimensional and dynamic concept that can be assessed based on the differences between expectations and reality level. The present study aimed to investigate the mediating role of social anxiety in the causal relationships of alexithymia and social intelligence with the quality of life in women-headed household in Ahvaz.Methods: The research design was causal-correlational and had a field type. A total of 261 women-headed household were selected from Ahvaz City by convenience sampling. The research instrument included World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire-Short Form, Ahvaz Alexithymia scale (AAS- 26 questions), Tromso Social Intelligence Scale (TSIS), and Jerabek Social Anxiety Scale. Analysis of the data involved both descriptive and inferential statistics including mean, standard deviation, Pearson’s correlation, and path analysis. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 24.Results: A direct and positive relationship was observed between social intelligence and quality of life (β=0.152, P=0.003) and between alexithymia and social anxiety (β=0.245, P=0.001). There was a direct and negative relationship between social anxiety and quality of life (β=-0.618, P=0.001). There was no direct and significant relationship between alexithymia and quality of life (β=0.043, P=0.417). The path analysis results indicated that social anxiety had a mediating role in the relationship between alexithymia and quality of life (β=-0.246, P=0.001) as well as the relationship between social intelligence and quality of life (β=-0.275, P=0.001).Conclusion: Social anxiety plays an important role in the relationship between social intelligence, alexithymia, and quality of life.