Group Exposure Workshops for Socially Anxious Undergraduates

NCT06673407 | Recruiting

• 1 other identifier: 24-0178
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 200
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The purpose of the study is to investigate the effects of four versions of a workshop for social anxiety and public speaking stress. All participants are current University of Colorado Boulder undergraduate students. Participation in this research study lasts for approximately 8 weeks, and includes a pre-workshop questionnaire, 3 weekly workshop sessions (ranging from 2 to 3 hours each, including a 5-minute post-session questionnaire), a post-workshop questionnaire, and a 1-month follow-up questionnaire.

Conditions

Social Anxiety Disorder; Public Speaking Fear; Public Speaking Anxiety; Social Fear

Keywords

Social Anxiety; Public Speaking Anxiety; Exposure Therapy; Peer-led; Self-compassion; Common Humanity

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (6)

• Attendance rate

  Average number of workshop sessions attended by enrolled research participants.

  3 weeks during the intervention (workshops 1, 2, and 3, 1 week apart)

• Enrollment rate

  Ratio of screened, eligible participants who enrolled in the study.

  Pre-intervention (from screening to enrollment)

• Acceptability of Intervention Measure (AIM)

  Workshop satisfaction rating, Range = 1 - 5, Higher scores indicate better outcome (greater acceptability)

  48 hours after the final intervention session and 1-month follow-up

• Client Satisfaction Questionnaire-8 (CSQ-8)

  Satisfaction with workshops, Range = 8 - 32, Higher scores indicate better outcome (greater satisfaction)

  48 hours after the final intervention session and 1-month follow-up

• Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN)

  Social anxiety symptom measure, Range = 0 - 68, Higher scores indicate worse outcome (worse social phobia)

  48 hours after the final intervention session and 1-month follow-up

• Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS)

  Measure assessing fear/anxiety across a broad range of social and performance situations, Range = 0 - 144, Higher scores indicate worse outcome (worse social anxiety)

  48 hours after the final intervention session and 1-month follow-up

Secondary Outcomes (13)

• Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA-24)

  48 hours after the final intervention session and 1-month follow-up

• Fidelity

  3 weeks during the intervention (workshops 1, 2, and 3, 1 week apart)

• Contamination

  3 weeks during the intervention (workshops 1, 2, and 3, 1 week apart)

• Study Burden

  48 hours after the final intervention session and 1-month follow-up

• Survey Completion

  between 10 and 0 days before the first intervention session, 48 hours after the final intervention session, and 1-month follow-up

Study Arms (4)

Exposure Only

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Group exposure therapy for social anxiety and public speaking fears.

Behavioral: Group Exposure for Social Anxiety

Compassion Enhanced

EXPERIMENTAL

Group exposure therapy for social anxiety and public speaking fears plus self-compassion exercises aimed at inducing a sense of common humanity.

Behavioral: Self-Compassion Enhanced Group Exposure Therapy for Social Anxiety

Peer enhanced

EXPERIMENTAL

Group exposure therapy for social anxiety and public speaking fears facilitated by a pair of doctoral student and undergraduate student co-facilitators who will explicitly use appropriate self-disclosure to establish the co-facilitators as individuals with lived experiences of social anxiety and public speaking fears.

Behavioral: Peer-Enhanced Group Exposure Therapy for Social Anxiety

Fully enhanced

EXPERIMENTAL

Group exposure therapy for social anxiety and public speaking fears plus self-compassion exercises aimed at inducing a sense of common humanity, facilitated by a pair of doctoral student and undergraduate student co-facilitators who will explicitly use appropriate self-disclosure to establish the co-facilitators as individuals with lived experiences of social anxiety and public speaking fears.

Behavioral: Peer and Self-Compassion Enhanced Group Exposure Therapy for Social Anxiety

Interventions

Group Exposure for Social Anxiety BEHAVIORAL

Group exposure therapy for social anxiety and public speaking fears.

Exposure Only

Self-Compassion Enhanced Group Exposure Therapy for Social Anxiety BEHAVIORAL

Group exposure therapy for social anxiety and public speaking fears plus piloted exercises from the investigators' previous studies among socially anxious undergraduates (Slivjak et al., 2022; Slivjak \& Arch, in preparation), refined during the investigators' quality improvement project, that are designed to enhance compassion.

Compassion Enhanced

Peer-Enhanced Group Exposure Therapy for Social Anxiety BEHAVIORAL

Group exposure therapy for social anxiety and public speaking fears facilitated by a pair of doctoral student and undergraduate student co-facilitators who explicitly use appropriate self-disclosure to establish the co-facilitators as individuals with lived experiences of social anxiety and public speaking fears.

Peer enhanced

Peer and Self-Compassion Enhanced Group Exposure Therapy for Social Anxiety BEHAVIORAL

Group exposure therapy for social anxiety and public speaking fears plus piloted exercises from the investigators' previous studies among socially anxious undergraduates (Slivjak et al., 2022; Slivjak \& Arch, in preparation), refined during the investigators' quality improvement project, that are designed to enhance compassion. These groups are facilitated by a pair of doctoral student and undergraduate student co-facilitators who explicitly use appropriate self-disclosure to establish the co-facilitators as individuals with lived experiences of social anxiety and public speaking fears.

Fully enhanced

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 30 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• Age = 18-30
• Able to read and write fluently in English
• Current undergraduate students at CU
• Experiencing elevated social anxiety symptoms indicated by a SPIN score ≥ 19
• Experiencing moderate to high communication anxiety indicated by a PRCA- 24 score ≥ 59
• Open to receiving help for social anxiety or public speaking fears indicated by a help seeking score of ≥ 3 out of 5 (at both screening timepoints as explained below)
• Able to voluntarily consent to participation
• Able to participate fully in the study (including in the in-person group workshops and in survey completion) as assessed by screening questions and the study P

You may not qualify if:

• Are currently experiencing moderately severe or severe depression represented by the validated cutoff score for major depression on the PHQ-8 of greater than 14 (Kroenke et al., 2001)
• Score in the moderate-high range for suicide risk as indicated by the CSSRS (Salvi, 2019), report a suicide attempt in the past 12 months, or report current, ongoing suicidal ideation along with a past (lifetime) suicide attempt
• Are current students of the PI or clients or current students of the doctoral student co-facilitators

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Colorado, Boulder: lead

Study Sites (1)

Renee Crown Wellness Institute and Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder

Boulder, Colorado, 80302, United States

RECRUITING

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Phobia, Social; Glossophobia

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Phobic Disorders; Anxiety Disorders; Mental Disorders

Central Study Contacts

Joanna Arch, PhD

CONTACT

303.492.4634; joanna.arch@colorado.edu

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: FACTORIAL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Yvonne Kristy Endowed Chair, Renée Crown Wellness Institute; Professor, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience

Model Details: This trial uses a 2-variable full factorial design within the Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST) framework. Participants will be assigned to one of four study conditions involving 5.5-7.5-hours of workshops (depending on study condition) conducted over 3 in-person group sessions. Study conditions will vary depending on whether they 1) include self-compassion (i.e., common humanity) enhancements, and 2) are led by peer co-facilitators.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: October 8, 2024
• First Posted: November 4, 2024
• Study Start: June 12, 2024
• Primary Completion: October 1, 2025
• Study Completion: October 1, 2025
• Last Updated: May 20, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-05

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

US (1)