The Turkish adaptation study of the kutcher generalized Social Anxiety Disorder Scale for adolescents and investigation of the effectiveness of a group training on the severity of social anxiety in adolescents

The aim of this study is to translate the Kutcher Generalized Social Anxiety Disorder Scale for Adolescents into Turkish and to test its validity and reliability, as well as to test the effectiveness of the group training of emotion regulation skills ("Coping with Emotions Program") which has been developed by the researcher through using the cognitive-behavioral approach for adolescents with social anxiety symptoms. A survey and an experimental study have been conducted through the research. The survey study was carried out on 383 students aged between 13-19 who continued their studies in various primary and high schools in Istanbul in the 2019-2020 academic year. It aimed not only to adapt the scale into the Turkish culture, but also to serve as a screening of the relevant sample. For the experimental study of the research, 22 students from the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th grades, (Experimental group: 11, Control group: 11), who participated in the previous survey study and scored one standard deviation above in the screening tests were included in the main study. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic,, the group trainings conducted in two separate groups, namely the middle adolescents (13-15 years olds) and late adolescence (16-17 years olds). To test the validity of the Kutcher Generalized Social Anxiety Disorder Scale for Adolescents, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed. Moreover, the Cronbach's Alpha values of the subscales and item-total correlation values of the items were calculated. And finally, a Spearman RHO Analysis was performed to calculate the test-retest reliability. It has been concluded that the Turkish version of the Kutcher Generalized Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (P-ESAS) has a 4-dimensional structure with 47-items, and is a valid and reliable measurement tool for adolescences aged 13-19. To investigate the effectiveness of the self-developed emotion regulation skill training, the "Coping with Emotions Program", the experimental group has been taken into 90-minutes weekly sessions 10-weeks long., The control group did not receive any intervention, and the severity of the social anxiety symptoms, the level of emotion regulation skills and the changes in self-esteem scores of the two groups were compared to each other. The scales were applied before and after the intervention for pre-test, post-test purposed, as well as to monitor the groups regularly. The data were analyzed via SPSS V22.0 (IBM Inc.) through applyingthe Mann-Whitney U Test, the Friedman Test and the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test. Based on the findings, the "Coping with Emotions Program" has been found to be effective in decreasing the severity of the social anxiety symptoms, and the permanent positive effect continued. The results showed that the program did not create any significant difference in the level of emotion regulation skills, but it could create an increase in the level of self-esteem. At the final part of the paper, the findings and their contribution to the theory and practice of the clinical psychology has been discussed in light of the current literatüre.