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Efficacy of Community-Delivered PEERS® for Adolescents: Increases in Social Skills and Decreases in Social Anxiety and Loneliness

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Abstract

Purpose

PEERS® for Adolescents is an evidence-based social skills training program developed for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which is now widely implemented by community providers in clinics and schools. However, majority of past efficacy studies on PEERS® were conducted in controlled research settings, with limited information about its effectiveness when delivered in the community. We sought to examine the effects of PEERS® on social functioning and mental health outcomes when delivered in an outpatient autism specialty clinic.

Methods

Clinical data from 45 adolescents with social challenges (age range: 11–18 years old; 31.1% female assigned at birth) were extracted for secondary analyses. Paired t-tests were performed to examine the pre- to post-intervention changes in social and mental health outcomes. Correlations between pre- and post-change scores of outcome measures were examined.

Results

Self-reported social skills knowledge, caregiver-reported social skills (measured by the Social Skills Improvement Systems) and the number of get-togethers hosted, increased significantly from pre- to post-intervention. Additionally, caregiver-reported anxiety and self-reported loneliness significantly decreased from pre- to post-intervention. Exploratory analyses showed that increases in caregiver-reported social skills were associated with decreases in self-reported loneliness.

Conclusions

Our findings provide evidence supporting the efficacy of PEERS® for improving social knowledge and skills of adolescents with social challenges when delivered in the community. The current study also showed the potential benefit of PEERS® for improving adolescent mental health.

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Funding

Dr. Shuting Zheng is supported by a career development award from the National Institute of Mental Health of the U.S. National Institutes of Health under Award Number K99MH131841.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California San Francisco, 675 18th St., San Francisco, CA, 94107, USA

    China I. Parenteau, Jessica Floyd, Katy Ankenman, Tara Glavin, Julia Charalel, Enjey Lin, Whitney Ence, Young Shin Kim, Somer Bishop & Shuting Zheng

Authors
  1. China I. Parenteau
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  2. Jessica Floyd
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  3. Katy Ankenman
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  4. Tara Glavin
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  5. Julia Charalel
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  6. Enjey Lin
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  7. Whitney Ence
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  8. Young Shin Kim
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  9. Somer Bishop
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  10. Shuting Zheng
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Contributions

KA, TG, JC, CEL, WE delivered the PEERS® intervention as a part of clinical services. The authors declare no conflict of interest related to the current study.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shuting Zheng.

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Parenteau, C.I., Floyd, J., Ankenman, K. et al. Efficacy of Community-Delivered PEERS® for Adolescents: Increases in Social Skills and Decreases in Social Anxiety and Loneliness. J Autism Dev Disord (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-024-06433-z

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