Motivational interviewing for young adults with autism spectrum disorder: A Pilot Feasibility Study

The transition to adulthood presents unique challenges for neurodiverse young adults (18-25 years old) without co-occurring intellectual disabilities, including difficulties making and achieving long-term goals. Evidence-based interventions such as Motivational Interviewing (MI) focus on helping individuals develop motivation to make changes and has been modified for those with challenging behaviors and intellectual disability but have yet to be adapted for young adults with ASD without co-occurring intellectual disability. The present study comes from a larger study evaluating a treatment program for young adults with ASD and their parents during the transition to adulthood. This study evaluated the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary signal of effect of adapted MI-coaching sessions for young adults with ASD. Eleven young adults (18-25 years old) with co-occurring disorders were provided with individual, virtual MI-coaching sessions to help make progress on individual developed goals. Overall, the MI-coaching sessions were acceptable and feasible for both coaches and young adults. Young adults experienced significant increases in confidence to transition to adulthood, coping self-efficacy, and quality of life after the intervention. Using goal attainment scaling, young adults rated their weekly SMART goals. All young adults completed a weekly SMART goal at the “expected” level (i.e., “0”) and most young adults 73% (8/11 young adults) completed a weekly SMART goal at the “much more than expected” level (i.e., “+2”) by the end of the intervention. Nine out of eleven of the young adults had reached the Termination stage of the transtheoretical model of change by the end of the intervention. The findings suggest that MI can be successfully implemented with neurodiverse young adults during the transition to adulthood.