“You’ve Got a Friend in Me”- Social Skills and Friendship Building in Adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
| dc.contributor.advisor | Climie, Emma | |
| dc.contributor.author | Neprily, Kirsten | |
| dc.contributor.committeemember | McCrimmon, Adam | |
| dc.contributor.committeemember | Makarenko, Erica | |
| dc.date | 2025-11 | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-12-16T18:56:51Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-12-16T18:56:51Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2024-12-05 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder causing impairment in multiple areas of functioning, including behavioural, emotional, and social abilities. Social skill challenges and poor interpersonal relationships are often found in adolescents with ADHD. Specifically, adolescents with ADHD may struggle with social skills resulting in less friendships, lower friendship quality, and engaging in more inappropriate social behaviours compared to their neurotypical peers. Researchers have promoted the need for long term interventions that not only address social skill development but directly address dyadic friendship making for adolescents with ADHD. One such intervention, the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS) has the potential to address these challenges. The current study expanded on previous research by examining the effectiveness of PEERS on social skill development and friendship making in adolescents with ADHD in a Canadian context. After inclusionary criteria were applied and data quality were examined, the final sample included 46 participants (23 adolescents and 23 caregivers/parents), with adolescents ranging in age from 13.0-18.1 years of age. The research design involves repeated time points and analyses were conducted using linear mixed models. Participation in PEERS was associated with significant gains in social skills knowledge, formation of a new friendship, increased get togethers, and improved quality of existing friendships at post intervention; these were maintained at follow-up. The results suggest that PEERS may be an effective tool to build adolescents with ADHD’s social skills and improve friendship making, reducing the potential negative outcomes in this population. | |
| dc.identifier.citation | Neprily, K. (2024). “You’ve got a friend in me”- social skills and friendship building in adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1880/120167 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher.faculty | Graduate Studies | |
| dc.publisher.institution | University of Calgary | |
| dc.rights | University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. | |
| dc.subject | Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder | |
| dc.subject | Adolescents | |
| dc.subject | Social skills training | |
| dc.subject | Friendship making | |
| dc.subject | Friendship quality | |
| dc.subject.classification | Educational Psychology | |
| dc.title | “You’ve Got a Friend in Me”- Social Skills and Friendship Building in Adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder | |
| dc.type | doctoral thesis | |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Education Graduate Program – Educational Psychology | |
| thesis.degree.grantor | University of Calgary | |
| thesis.degree.name | Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) | |
| ucalgary.thesis.accesssetbystudent | I do not require a thesis withhold – my thesis will have open access and can be viewed and downloaded publicly as soon as possible. |