The Methodological Quality and Intervention Fidelity of Randomised Controlled Trials Evaluating Social Skills Group Programs in Autistic Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysisShow others and affiliations
2024 (English)In: Journal of autism and developmental disorders, ISSN 0162-3257, E-ISSN 1573-3432, Vol. 54, p. 1281-1316Article, review/survey (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
A systematic review and meta-analysis were utilised to explore the methodological quality, program fidelity, and efficacy of social skills group programs (SSGPs) aiming to support autistic adolescents in navigating their everyday social worlds. The study evaluated the methodological quality and theoretical fidelity of studies, with a random effect meta-analysis conducted to summarise the overall efficacy of SSGP and its effect on social communication and interaction, behavioural/emotional challenges, adaptive functioning, and autism characteristics. Although findings from the 18 identified studies indicated an adjusted medium overall effect with these programs successfully supporting autistic adolescents’ socialisation needs (g = 0. 60, p < 0.001), most studies demonstrated medium to low program fidelity despite their good methodological quality. Given the significant heterogeneity of SSGPs and variations in the design and measurement frameworks of efficacy studies, understanding the generalisability of the findings of this research is unclear.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer, 2024. Vol. 54, p. 1281-1316
Keywords [en]
Adolescents, Autism, Randomised controlled trial, Social skills, Systematic review
National Category
Psychiatry
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-59760DOI: 10.1007/s10803-023-05893-zISI: 000916561100001PubMedID: 36681732Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85146570631Local ID: HOA;intsam;860721OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hj-59760DiVA, id: diva2:1735164
2023-02-082023-02-082024-04-03Bibliographically approved