30154
Parent-Mediation and Teacher-Facilitation As Mechanisms of Change in Social Skills Training: Treatment Outcomes for the PEERS® for Adolescents Intervention
Impaired social skills are known to negatively impact individuals with ASD across the lifespan. While social skills training is a common treatment method, few evidence-based interventions exist to improve social functioning for adolescents on the spectrum (Reichow & Volkmar 2010). Parent-mediated interventions have shown promise in teaching social skills to adolescents with ASD (Laugeson et al., 2009; 2012; Van Hecke et al. 2013; Schohl et al. 2013), and teacher-facilitated interventions have also yielded encouraging findings (Laugeson et al. 2014). While parent and teacher involvement are thought to be important mechanisms of change in social skills training, little is known about the differences in treatment outcomes across these two mechanisms.
Objectives:
The purpose of this study is to: (1) examine changes in social functioning following parent-mediated and teacher-facilitated social skills interventions for adolescents with ASD; and (2) examine differences in treatment outcomes when parents or teachers are included in treatment.
Methods:
Participants included 290 adolescents with ASD (76% male) ranging in age from 11-19 (M=14.13; SD=1.83). Participants received either parent-mediated (n=205) or teacher-facilitated (n=85) social skills instruction for 14-weeks using the PEERS® curriculum (Laugeson & Frankel 2010; Laugeson, 2014). Skills focusing on friendship development were targeted. Treatment outcome was measured across the two groups (parent-mediated v. teacher-facilitated) using a battery of standardized and criterion-based measures including the Social Responsiveness Scale-Second Edition (SRS-2: Constantino 2012), Social Skills Improvement System (SSIS; Gresham & Elliott 2008), Test of Adolescent Social Skills Knowledge (TASSK; Laugeson 204), and Quality of Socialization Questionnaire-Adolescent (QSQ-A; Laugeson 2014).
Results:
Paired sample T-tests examining outcomes in the parent-mediated program revealed significant improvement in T-scores on the SRS-2 Total Subscale (pre-test: M=77.55, SD=9.358; post-test: M=68.91, SD=10.475; t(205)=12.22, p<0.01), standard scores on the SSIS Social Skills Subscale SIS (pre-test: M=78.34, SD=12.68; post-test: M=85.75, SD=11.67; t(205)=10.51, p<0.01), social skills knowledge on the TASSK (pre-test: M=13.45, SD=3.188; post-test: M=22.22, SD=4.376; t(205)=28.504, p<0.01), and social engagement on the QSQ-A (pre-test: M=2.709, SD=3.233; post-test: M=5.126, SD=4.913; t(205)=7.214, p<0.01).
Paired sample T-tests examining outcomes in the teacher-facilitated program revealed significant improvement in T-scores on the SRS-2 Total Subscale (pre-test: M=77.55, SD=9.358; post-test: M=68.91, SD=10.475; t(85)=3.476, p<0.01), and standard scores on the SSIS Social Skills Subscale (pre-test: M=79.34, SD=12.174; post-test: M=83.55, SD=14.209; t(85)=3.555, p<0.01), and social skills knowledge on the TASSK (pre-test: M=13.45, SD=4.376; post-test: M=22.22, SD=4.376; t(85)=3.476, p<0.01). Significant improvements were not observed on the QSQ-A.
In order to compare differences in treatment outcome across the two groups (parent-mediated v. teacher-facilitated), independent samples T-tests were conducted. Significant differences in change scores were observed across the groups on the SRS-Total Subscale (parent-mediated: M=8.646, SD=10.156; teacher-facilitated: M=3.069, SD=8.190; t(195.72)=4.514, p<0.01), SSIS Social Skills Subscale (parent-mediated: M=7.408, SD=10.116; teacher-facilitated: M=4.209, SD=10.980; t(290)=2.401, p<0.05), social skills knowledge on the TASSK (parent-mediated: M=8.777, SD=4.419; teacher-facilitated: M=4.605, SD=3.692; t(290)=7.702, p<0.01), and social engagement on the QSQ-A (parent-mediated: M=2.418, SD=4.81; teacher-facilitated: M=-0.093, SD=3.154; t(237.42)=5.259, p<0.01).
Conclusions:
Findings reveal that while both program are efficacious, parent-mediation, in comparison to teacher-facilitation, is a greater mechanism of change in social skills training using the PEERS® curriculum.