effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy and rational emotive behavior therapy in reducing social anxiety among overweight adolescents

Background and objective: in recent decades, emphasis on diet and thinness has been considered by all social and racial classes. this study aimed to compare the effectiveness of the cognitive behavioral approach and rational emotive behavior therapy in reducing social anxiety among overweight adolescents. materials and methods: this quasi-experimental research was conducted based on a pretest-posttest control group design and a two-month follow-up. the statistical population of this study consisted of male and female adolescents with overweight and obesity problems referred to clinics in tehran, iran, in 2019. among this population, 60 subjects were selected using the convenience sampling method and were randomly assigned to experimental and one control groups. interventions in both groups were administered in a form of group therapy and consisted of 8 sessions of 120-minute. the required data were obtained by the social phobia inventory and analyzed in spss software (version 22) using the repeated measures anova. the significance level in this study was considered to be 0.05. results: the results showed that cognitive behavioral approaches and rational emotive behavior therapy could effectively reduce social anxiety among overweight adolescents (p<0.001). however, no significant difference was observed between the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral and rational emotive behavior therapy on social anxiety. conclusion: it can be concluded that the cognitive behavioral approach and rational emotive behavior therapy could have positive effects on reducing social anxiety among adolescents.