22. The efficacy of music therapy on social anxiety and social skills in adolescents: an analysis

Abstract Background Social anxiety is a common psychological problem among teenagers, manifested as excessive fear and self-awareness in social situations. Social anxiety hinders the development of teenagers' social skills, thereby causing serious negative impacts on interpersonal relationships and future development. Music therapy is an alternative treatment method that provides a non-threatening environment for emotional exploration and social interaction. Involving teenagers in music activities through music therapy can alleviate their anxiety and enhance their potential for emotional expression. Therefore, by studying and analyzing the therapeutic effect of music therapy on social anxiety and its impact on the improvement of social skills, it is expected to provide a certain theoretical basis for mental health guidance in colleges and universities. Methods Randomly select 100 teenagers diagnosed with social anxiety from a certain university. Participants were randomly assigned to the music therapy group, totaling 50 people, and the traditional therapy group, totaling 50 people. The music therapy group received an 8-week music therapy intervention, while the traditional treatment group received no intervention at all. Before and after the intervention, the social anxiety levels and social skills of the participants were evaluated using the Social Anxiety Scale and the Social Skills Scoring System. Results The improvement of social anxiety and social skills in each group is shown in Table 1. As can be seen from Table 1, the music therapy group showed significant improvements in both social anxiety and social skills (p<.01), and the social anxiety score decreased from 62.4 ± 6.1 before the intervention to 45.8 ± 5.3, while the social skills score increased from 28.7 ± 4.2 to 38.9 ± 4.6. Although the traditional treatment group had an improvement effect on teenagers' social anxiety and social skills, the improvement effect was poorer compared to the music therapy group. This result indicates that music therapy has a positive effect on alleviating social anxiety and enhancing social skills. Music therapy effectively improves social anxiety and social skills by providing a safe and supportive environment, enabling teenagers to express their emotions through music, enhance their self-awareness and social interaction skills. Discussion Research results show that music therapy can significantly improve the social skills of teenagers with social anxiety. The effect of music therapy stems from its unique emotional expression and social interaction mechanism, providing teenagers with a non-verbal communication method, which helps to reduce social anxiety and enhance social skills. Future research can further explore the long-term effects of music therapy and how to combine it with other treatment methods to provide more comprehensive mental health support. Furthermore, exploring the specific mechanisms by which music therapy affects social skills can provide valuable insights for the development of targeted intervention measures.