291. The correlation between team collaboration mechanisms in basketball sports and the alleviation of adolescents' social anxiety

Abstract Background Social Anxiety (SA) among adolescents, a relatively common psychological issue, is often characterized by excessive worry in social situations, particularly evident in sports activities. Most scholars believe that team sports can effectively alleviate anxiety symptoms, but some participants experience minimal effects, while others may even see symptom exacerbation due to social pressure. Identifying the core psychological and behavioral mechanisms linked to improved social functioning could enhance the personalization and precision of intervention strategies. In psychological interventions, active social interaction behaviors have been shown to correlate positively with therapeutic outcomes. Previous research suggests that collaboration levels in team sports may be associated with improved social skills, but longitudinal studies are lacking to confirm their predictive value for alleviating social anxiety. Therefore, this study leverages adolescent basketball training to examine whether team collaboration mechanisms serve as an effective predictor of social anxiety alleviation in adolescents, thereby evaluating the clinical intervention efficacy of social anxiety tendencies. Methods The study selected a total of 540 adolescents with social anxiety tendencies and 229 healthy control adolescents for baseline assessment, and they were enrolled in a 12-month structured basketball training program. The "Basketball Team Collaboration Scale" was used for assessment at the beginning of the project (baseline), which includes two core collaboration dimensions: (1) Tactical Execution Cooperation (TEC), reflecting the organized communication and coordination from the top down to achieve team goals; (2) Spontaneous Mutual Support (SMS), reflecting the immediate encouragement and support from the bottom up when dealing with emergencies. The differences in baseline collaboration levels among adolescents with different clinical outcomes of social anxiety tendencies were compared, including the significantly alleviated group, the persistent symptom group, and the deterioration group set for comparison. Results Table 1 shows that the TEC score (8.6 ± 1.2) of the significantly alleviated group was significantly higher than that of the persistent symptom group (7.1 ± 1.5), and the difference was statistically significant (p=.008 < 0.05). Similarly, the SMS score (8.9 ± 1.1) of the significantly alleviated group was also significantly better than that of the persistent symptom group (7.3 ± 1.6), with a p-value of 0.005. The results of Table 1 indicate that higher team collaboration ability is directly related to more positive intervention outcomes (significant alleviation). Discussion The study found that adolescents who significantly alleviate social anxiety in basketball sports show higher levels of teamwork at the beginning of the intervention. Teamwork level can be used as an effective social and psychological resilience biomarker to predict the clinical outcomes of adolescents in group sports interventions, the key being "how to participate." In the future, it can be attempted to identify high-risk individuals who may need additional social skill training through baseline collaboration ability assessment, thereby improving the overall intervention effect. Funding No. 202538.