اثربخشی مداخله مبتنی بر چت‌بات درمانگر شناختی- رفتاری بر کاهش اضطراب اجتماعی و افسردگی دانش‌آموزان پسر متوسطه دوم استان قم: یک کارآزمایی تصادفی‌شده خوشه‌ای

عباس نجفی; ملیحه  بادی; زینب  عارفی

Authors

Abbas Najafi MA, Department of Clinical Psychology, Qom Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qom, Iran. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5852-6238
Malihe Badi Master of Science in History and Philosophy of Education, Islamic Education, Department of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Qom, Qom, Iran Author https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1612-3673
Zeinab Arefi PhD in Educational Technology, Department of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Allameh Tabatabaei University, Tehran, Iran Author https://orcid.org/0009-0003-3571-4468

Keywords:

Chatbot therapist, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), social anxiety, depression, adolescents, digital intervention

Abstract

Introduction and Aim: Male high school students have problems in the context of social anxiety and depression. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of determine the effectiveness of a cognitive-behavioral therapist chatbot-based intervention on reducing social anxiety and depression in male high school students of Qom province: a cluster randomized trial.

Methodology: This research was a quasi-experimental with a pre-test, post-test, and follow-up design in two groups. The research population was male high school students of Qom province in the 2024-5 academic years. In this research, two classes were selected as samples using a cluster random sampling method and one of the groups was randomly assigned as an intervention group with a cognitive-behavioral therapist chatbot, and the other group was trained as an active control group with non-interactive mental-health content. Both groups were trained for 8 weeks (five days a week and 15 to 20 minutes a day) and in the assessment stages were answered to the Social Anxiety Questionnaire among Adolescents (La Greca & Lopez, 1998) and Patient Health Questionnaire (Kroenke et al., 2001). The data of this study were analyzed using the mixed effects model method in SPSS-29 software at a significance level of 0.05.

Findings: The results of this research showed that the cognitive-behavioral therapist chatbot-based intervention significantly reduced social anxiety and depression in male high school students (P<0.001).

Conclusion: According to the results of this study, to improve psychological characteristics, especially reducing social anxiety and depression can be used from cognitive-behavioral therapist chatbot-based intervention method.