Parent and family outcomes of PEERS: a social skills intervention for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 2015 Mar;45(3):752-65
Date
09/07/2014Pubmed ID
25193142DOI
10.1007/s10803-014-2231-6Scopus ID
2-s2.0-84923677480 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 55 CitationsAbstract
Raising a child with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with increased family chaos and parent distress. Successful long-term treatment outcomes are dependent on healthy systemic functioning, but the family impact of treatment is rarely evaluated. The Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS) is a social skills intervention designed for adolescents with high-functioning ASD. This study assessed the impact of PEERS on family chaos, parenting stress, and parenting self-efficacy via a randomized, controlled trial. Results suggested beneficial effects for the experimental group in the domain of family chaos compared to the waitlist control, while parents in the PEERS experimental group also demonstrated increased parenting self-efficacy. These findings highlight adjunctive family system benefits of PEERS intervention and suggest the need for overall better understanding of parent and family outcomes of ASD interventions.
Author List
Karst JS, Van Hecke AV, Carson AM, Stevens S, Schohl K, Dolan BAuthors
Jeffrey S. Karst PhD Associate Professor in the Pediatrics department at Medical College of WisconsinAmy Van Hecke PhD Professor in the Psychology department at Marquette University
MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
AdolescentAdult
Child
Child Development Disorders, Pervasive
Female
Humans
Male
Parenting
Parents
Self Efficacy
Social Skills
