An Evaluation of the Efficacy of a Social Intervention in Relation to Social Skills, Cognition, Motivation, and Awareness in Teens with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Date
2017
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The present study examined social skills, social cognition (SC), social motivation (SM), and social awareness (SA) in teens with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) following the completion of the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS; Laugeson & Frankel, 2010). PEERS is a caregiver-assisted, evidence-based social skills program that teaches adolescents with ASD foundational skills to make and keep friends effectively. Measures of social skills, SC, SM, and SA were examined one week prior to participation in PEERS (i.e., pre- intervention), one week after PEERS (i.e., post-intervention), and 14 weeks after PEERS (i.e., follow-up). Results revealed no significant changes in social skills after PEERS; however, results indicated significant improvements in SC and SA from pre- to post-intervention, as well as significant improvements in SM from pre-intervention to follow-up. Due to the lack of significant findings in social skill change following PEERS, the study could not investigate predictors of change. Implications of these findings are discussed.
Description
Keywords
Educational Psychology
Citation
McCarthy, L. (2017). An Evaluation of the Efficacy of a Social Intervention in Relation to Social Skills, Cognition, Motivation, and Awareness in Teens with Autism Spectrum Disorder (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/24860