Enhancing social outcomes in autistic youth: Assessing the impact of PEERS® booster sessions
The following is an abstract from a recent study that looked at the effectiveness of a ‘booster’ program on the social and relational skills of a group of young people who had previously participated in the PEERS program.
Authors: Laura Maria Fatta, Dora Bianchi, Elizabeth A. Laugeson, Elina Veytsman, Giovanna Romano, Fiorenzo Laghi, Maria Louisa Scattoni
Background:
The Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS®) is a social skills training program for autistic adolescents and those facing social challenges. Its efficacy has been established worldwide, including in Italy. Although booster interventions are a potentially valuable strategy to maintain improvements over time, there is currently no research on the efficacy of providing booster sessions of PEERS® following the traditional treatment.
Aims:
This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of PEERS® Booster sessions in a sample who had previously participated in a traditional PEERS® Adolescent program.
Methods and procedures:
A longitudinal non-randomized study was conducted involving 21 autistic adolescents, divided into the treatment group undergoing PEERS® Booster sessions and the control group without it. Outcomes and results: The study evaluated the primary outcomes (social abilities) and secondary outcomes (co-occurrences, executive functions) at two time points (pre- and post-treatment). No significant differences were found between groups on baseline measures and primary outcomes. However, there were significant group differences between pre- and post-treatment on primary outcomes (social awareness and social communication) and secondary outcomes (externalising problems).
Conclusions and implications:
The efficacy of the PEERS® Booster Sessions shows promise and clinical implications were also discussed
What this paper adds?
The evaluation of booster interventions is a scientifically significant field of interest, as booster programs have the potential to sustain gains over time, especially considering that social skills training (SST) programs typically have a limited time range. This study provides the first evidence supporting the implementation of a shortened maintenance program using PEERS® within a sample that completed the traditional PEERS® for Adolescents program. Results suggest the promising efficacy of PEERS® Booster sessions across social functioning and emotional-behavioural outcomes, specifically in social awareness, social communication, and externalising problems. However, the results should be compared with findings from other similar studies to confirm the observed outcomes. Nonetheless, an intensive, shortened training of PEERS® represents a promising intervention option in various contexts, including for families in disadvantaged conditions, though this requires further investigation.