Effectiveness of Social Skills Interventions in young people aged 12 to 25 years with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

The aim of this review to examine the available evidence on the efficacy of social skills interventions (SSI) on core autistic traits among youth diagnosed with autism aged 12-25 years. The review included 15 studies (N=1244) where the meta-analysis findings revealed that participants receiving SSIs resulted in improvements in social skills, based on observation (SMD=0.49, 95% CI: 0.20, 0.78), adolescent (social knowledge (SMD=2.03, 95% CI: 1.15; 2.91) and social performance (SMD=0.45, 95% CI: 0.10; 0.81), and parent (SMD=0.42, 95% CI: 0.13, 0.71) reports. However, when SSIs were compared to an active control group, none of the reported measures showed a statistically significant effect of the SSI. Future research should prioritise enhancing study quality, particularly using active control conditions.