Table 1 Overview of previous studies on the effectiveness of the PEERS® parent-assisted curriculum for adolescents
Author | Design | N | Summary of significant findings per outcome measure |
|---|---|---|---|
Laugeson et al. 2009 [15] | RCTa: Waitlist control group | 33 | Adolescent report: Improved social knowledge and social contacts Parent report: Improvement in social skills |
Laugeson et al. 2012 [14] | RCT: Waitlist control group | 28 | Adolescent report: Improved social knowledge, social contacts Parent report: Improvement in social skills and reduction in social impairment |
Schohl et al. 2014 [16] | RCT: Waitlist control group | 58 | Adolescent report: Enhanced social knowledge, social contacts and declined social anxiety. Parent report: Reduction in social impairment as measured by the SRS |
Yoo et al. 2014 [9] | RCT: Waitlist control group | 47 | Adolescent report: Improved social knowledge. Parent report: decreased ASD symptoms on the Autism Developmental Observation Schedule (ADOS) and decreased depressive symptoms |
Mandelberg et al. 2014 [17] | Pre- posttest design with follow-up | 53 | Adolescent report: Improved social knowledge and social contacts (1-5 year follow-up) Parent report: Social functioning improvement and maintenance after (1-5 year follow-up) |
Dolan et al. 2016 [18] | RCT: Waitlist control group | 58 | Adolescent report: Enhanced social skills knowledge Observational measure: Improvement on behavioral observation (CASS) on subscale vocal expressiveness |
Rabin et al. 2018 [10] | RCT: Waitlist control group | 41 | Adolescent report: Increased social get-togethers, greater empathy and had more knowledge of social skills. Parent report: Improved social skills and reduced autism symptomology. The effects maintained at a 16-week follow-up assessment. Observational measure: Showed more social behavior (e.g. heightened engagement and question asking in conversations with a unknown peer) |
Schum et al. 2018 [11] | RCT: Waitlist control group | 72 | Parent report: Improved social skills knowledge, reduced autistic mannerisms and improved social functioning after intervention, replicating these results for the delayed treatment group |