Efficacy of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in the Treatment of Social Phobia among Adolescents in Secondary Schools in Oyo State, Nigeria
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Social phobia is a mental health problem that has been repeatedly linked with adolescents. This study therefore investigated the efficacy of Acceptance and Commitment therapy (ACT) on social phobia among secondary school adolescents in Oyo State, Nigeria. The study adopted a pretest – posttest control group quasi experimental design. The sample comprised of 104 secondary school adolescents identified with some levels of social phobia from the two randomly selected schools among the three senatorial districts of Oyo State. The selected students, grouped by schools and subsequently, treatment groups, were 51 and 53 for the control and experimental groups, respectively. The experimentation spanned a period of eight weeks, with ACT administered to the experimental group and placebo of leadership styles administered to the control group. The Social Phobia Inventory (SPI) was adopted and used for screening and in pretest and posttest stages. A statistical hypothesis was formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance by means of the Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). It was found that treatment with ACT significantly reduced the level of social phobia among school-going adolescents. ACT was therefore recommended for use in relieving school-going adolescents suffering from social phobia.
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In a 2019 RCT of 104 Nigerian adolescents with social anxiety, school-based ACT (eight weekly 30-min sessions) resulted in significantly greater decreases in social anxiety compared to leadership training.
“The second RCT was published in 2019 by Babalola and Ogunyemi, comparing school-based ACT to leadership training (eight weekly 30-min sessions) for adolescents with social anxiety (N = 104) in Nigeria [27]. Following treatment, adolescents who received ACT reported significantly greater decreases in social anxiety compared to those in leadership training.”
From Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Adolescent Anxiety (2024) · cites this paper as [27]
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Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredACT applied to adolescents with SAD is effective in treating this disorder in comparison to a control group.
“Some studies have shown that ACT applied to adolescents with SAD is effective in treating this disorder in comparison to a control group (Oyetunde & Ajibola, 2019) and that ACT may play an important role in reducing social anxiety and in increasing distress tolerance and emotional regulation in adolescents (Roohi et al., 2019).”
From Psychological inflexibility explains social anxiety over time: a mediation analyses with a clinical adolescent sample (2024) · cites this paper as Oyetunde & Ajibola, 2019
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- Authors
- Babalola, S. O., & Ogunyemi, A. O.
- Affiliations
- Olabisi Onabanjo University (NG)
- Venue
- ANNUAL JOURNAL OF TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF VARNA, BULGARIA
- Publisher
- Technical University of Varna
- Published
- 2019-12-31
- Volume
- 3
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 54-61
- ISSN
- 2603-316X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2997426434
- Cited by
- 8
- References
- 22
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 0.88
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Locations
- ANNUAL JOURNAL OF TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF VARNA BULGARIA (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Greater South Information System
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychological Treatments and Assessments
- Keywords
- acceptance and commitment therapy, social anxiety disorder, adolescents, high school students, psychotherapy efficacy, Social Phobia Inventory, Oyo State, Nigeria
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