Social Skills Group Training in Adolescents With Disabilities: A Systematic Review
Research in Developmental Disabilities
Gilmore, R., Ziviani, J., et al. (2022).
Research in Developmental Disabilities, 125, 104218.
This systematic review and meta-analysis examines the efficacy of group-based social skills interventions on social knowledge, social competence, and the social participation of adolescents (age 11-17 years) with congenital, acquired or developmental disabilities.
National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia); Children’s Hospital Foundation (Australia); Australasian Cerebral Palsy Clinical Trials Network (AusCP-CTN, Australia)
Database inception to March 2020
Randomized controlled trials
16
All but one study included adolescents on the autism spectrum and half (8/16) examined the effects of the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS®) intervention. Other manualized social skills interventions included KONTAKT, SENSE Theater, SOSTA-FRA, Sociodramatic Affective Relational Intervention, Multimodal Anxiety and Social Skills Intervention and Social Tools and Rules for Teens. Pooled meta-analytic results found that effects favored group-based social skills intervention over standard care or no intervention on improved social responsiveness (MD 9.68, 95% CI 5.63–13.73), increased social skills (SMD 0.38, 95% CI 0.10–0.65), and increased social knowledge (MD 7.43, 95% CI 5.36–9.50) (Moderate Certainty Evidence). There was some evidence that social skills intervention improved social participation (Low Certainty of Evidence). Further research is needed to examine the effects of specific group-based social skills interventions for other acquired conditions and populations.
