A meta-analysis of psychological treatment for reducing social anxiety disorder in children and teenagers

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is common in children and causes significant functional impairment. There are doubts about the level of effectiveness of various types of psychological treatment for children and teenagers with social anxiety. Therefore, the need for a systematic meta-analysis study on the effectiveness of existing therapies for social anxiety in children and teenagers is necessary. In this paper, the effectiveness of psychological treatments in children with social anxiety has been evaluated. In this study, 139 studies on the effectiveness of psychological treatment for social anxiety disorder in children and teenagers were collected and finally 12 studies were selected after accurate evaluation. Statistical analysis by use of comprehensive meta-analysis software (CMA) was done. Psychological treatment of social anxiety disorder had a moderate effect size on SAD in children. The mean of psychological treatment effect size on treatment of social anxiety disorder in children was significant-0.2 (p<.05). Existing treatments for this group of children require further investigation.