P10: Comparing the Early Maladaptive Schemas in Normal and Social Anxiety Adolescents

Social anxiety disorder is a common anxiety disorders in childhood and adolescence. Adolescence is a period during which the individual believes will lead to different outcomes. The aim of this study was to compare early maladaptive schemas in two groups of adolescents with social anxiety disorder and normal adolescents. The present study was causal-comparative. Population was consisted of all high school students in Shiraz in 2013-2014 school year. 214 students (107 males and 107 females) were selected by cluster random sampling. The 18-item social anxiety scale for adolescents (SASA) was completed. This sample was classified in two groups of normal and social anxiety. Among them, 47 patients (15 females and 32 males) were diagnosed with social phobia and 32 patients (15 females and 17 males) as normal. Short form early maladaptive schema questionnaire subsequently (Yang and Brown, 1994) was distributed. Data were analyzed by independent t-test and multivariate analysis of variance. Results showed that early maladaptive schemas scores were significantly different between two groups of adolescents with social phobia and normal adolescents (P<0.01). Multivariate analysis of variance also showed that adolescents with social anxiety, in terms of separation/rejection, autonomy/dysfunctional performance, heterodirection, vigilance and hampering restrictions, were scored higher than the normal adolescents. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that the scheme is one of the important factors in the development of social anxiety. Patients with social anxiety disorder can be treated by schema therapy as a cognitive-behavioral-dynamical method for changing dysfunctional schemas.