The Effectiveness of Dialectical Behavior Therapy on Social Anxiety and Academic Procrastination in Students with Learned Helplessness

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of Dialectical Behavior Therapy in reducing social anxiety and academic procrastination among students with learned helplessness. This study employed a quasi-experimental design with a pretest–posttest control group. The statistical population consisted of male high school students in Marvdasht during the 2024–2025 academic year, from which 30 students with high levels of learned helplessness were selected through purposive sampling and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups (15 participants each). The experimental group received ten weekly one-hour sessions of Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills training, while the control group received no intervention. Data were collected using standardized measures of social anxiety and academic procrastination and analyzed using analysis of covariance. The results of multivariate analysis of covariance indicated a significant difference between the experimental and control groups after controlling for pretest scores in social anxiety (F=9.04, p=0.005) and academic procrastination (F=7.47, p=0.009). The effect sizes were moderate for both social anxiety (η²=0.19) and academic procrastination (η²=0.16), demonstrating a statistically significant impact of the intervention. The findings suggest that Dialectical Behavior Therapy is an effective intervention for reducing social anxiety and academic procrastination in students with learned helplessness and can contribute to improving their psychological and academic functioning.