Self-help Reading Of Psychological Picture Books In The Intervention On Social Anxiety Of College Students

Background: social anxiety is a common psychological distress among college students.However,it's difficult for college students with social anxiety to turn to traditional psychological assistance for help,because the anxiety and fear of interpersonal situation makes it so hard.Self-help reading is then a suitable method for this group of people.However,at present,self-help books for social anxiety are monotonous in type and dull in content.Therefore,it is necessary to explore other forms of reading materials.Picture books are a kind of popular and healing reading materials,which may be helpful for social anxiety people.But there is still a lack of empirical research on the role of picture books in psychological therapy.Aims: psychological picture books were used as self-help reading materials to explore the influence of psychological picture books on social anxiety of college students,the results were compared with a CBT(cognitive-behavioral therapy)self-help handbook.This study also explored the factors which affect the improvement of social anxiety during the self-help reading.Study 1: in this study,the psychological picture books refer to the picture books which were based on psychological theories,and with the purpose of intervening specific psychological disturbances.According to the cognitive behavior model of social anxiety developed by Clark & Wells,three psychological picture books were compiled in this study,with the topics of expectation of social danger,self-focus attention and safety behavior.Scored by experts,3 picture books were proved had well presented specific psychological contents.Study 2: 60 college students with social anxiety who scored at least 49 on the Interaction Anxiety Scale(IAS)were randomly assigned to the experimental group and the control group for 3-5 weeks of self-help reading(3 weeks for experimental group,5 weeks for control group).The reading materials of the experimental group were 3 self-compiled psychological picture books for social anxiety.The control group read a CBT self-help handbook for social anxiety.During the self-help reading,the social anxiety scale Self-report Vision of Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale(LSAS-SR),Social Phobia Weekly Summary Scale(SPWSS),Social Cognitions Questionnaire(SCQ),Subtle Avoidance Frequency Evaluation(SAFE)were used as the measuring tool.In seven time points before and after the intervention,the participants were measured.The results showed that the experimental group had significant decrease at LSAS-SR,SCQ and SAFE.There was no significant difference in the trend of LSAS-SR's decrease between the experimental group and the control group over time,so the effect of picture books could be considered equal to the CBT self-help handbook.In addition,for the experimental group,the decrease of social anxiety can be mainly predicted by the participants' belief for the reading materials' effective.This study confirmed the potential value of psychological picture books during selfhelp treatment of social anxiety.