Does individual attention improve the effect of group treatment of adolescents with social phobia?

Résumé 0

"The objective of this experimental study is to provide empirical evidence on the efficacy-efficiency of individual attention in the treatment of adolescents with generalized social phobia. Individual attention is one of the components of the structured psychological treatment program known as IAFS (Intervención en Adolescentes con Fobia Social -Treatment for Adolescents with Social Phobia-). Fifty-seven subjects (63% female) between 14 and 18 years of age participated in this study. They were randomly assigned to three experimental conditions: a) the IAFS without individual attention, b) the IAFS with 6 sessions of individual attention, and c) the IAFS with 12 sessions of individual attention. The results show that the groups that included individual attention obtained better results in most of the measures assessing anxiety and social avoidance at 6- and 12-month follow-up, but not at posttest. The same trend was also found for the variables self-esteem and adaptation. However, costs are much higher in both treatment conditions."