5.1 Description: Social anxiety safety behavior fading intervention procedures will follow methodology previously used in the Cougle Lab. The safety behavior fading intervention is designed to target a decrease or elimination of five social anxiety safety behaviors that an individual has self-identified that they engage in most frequently and/or to the greatest extent.~Individuals randomly assigned to the safety behavior fading condition will receive instructions to decrease or eliminate their five social anxiety safety behaviors. In addition, they will receive daily reminders via text message to decrease these behaviors, along with a safety behavior monitoring checklist in which the participant indicates the extent to which they decreased and/or eliminated each safety behavior over the previous day. The daily reminder will include the following language: Hi! This is a friendly reminder to avoid using your checklist behaviors. Please tap the link below to access today's checklist: [link to checklist]. Individuals randomly assigned to the control condition will receive text messages to encourage fading of unhealthy behaviors. They will follow the same procedure as the safety behavior fading group.
The current study aims to explore the efficacy of a text message based Safety Behavior Fading Intervention compared to a control intervention.