Investigating the effectiveness of PEERS©-campus: The impact of a social skills group for young adults with autism adapted for a college campus.
Campus PEERS without caregivers produced only small social gains for six autistic undergrads.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Six autistic college students met on campus for PEERS social-skills lessons. The team dropped the usual parent-coach part so students could attend alone.
They used quizzes and self-ratings to see if social knowledge and back-and-forth talk improved after the group ended.
What they found
Most students scored a little higher on social-skills quizzes. Only a couple showed clear real-life change, like more two-way chats.
Gains were small and mostly came from what students said about themselves.
How this fits with other research
Earlier RCTs by Boudreau et al. (2015) and Gantman et al. (2012) found bigger gains when parents helped coach the skills at home. Dropping the parent piece may explain the smaller payoff.
Płatos et al. (2022) ran a stronger RCT with autistic teens and saw large, lasting gains. Their stricter design and parent help again outdid the campus-only model.
Wyman et al. (2020) also saw weak generalization when PEERS moved into classrooms. Together these studies hint that practice outside the group, with coaches, matters.
Why it matters
If you run PEERS at a college, keep the extra practice layer. Add peer mentors, staff check-ins, or brief parent Zooms so new skills get used in dorms and dining halls. Small tweaks may turn little gains into big ones.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: The Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relationship Skills (PEERS©) for Young Adults (PEERS-YA) is an evidence-based, group intervention for fostering social skills in young adults, though it may consist of elements that are not as suitable for autistic individuals in post-secondary educational settings. This study examined preliminary outcomes of an adapted PEERS-YA intervention for autistic college students. METHOD: A quasi-experimental design was utilized in which autistic college students (n = 6) and non-autistic social partners (n = 5) participated in the adapted PEERS-YA intervention. Wilcoxon Signed Rank Tests were used to assess statistically significant changes in social responsiveness, empathic and social self-efficacy, social skills knowledge, college belongingness, quality of life, loneliness, quality of socialization, and social anxiety at three time points. Reliable change indices (RCIs) were calculated to examine clinically significant effects. RESULTS: There were significant changes found in autistic participants' self-rated social reciprocity. Further, social skills knowledge increased for both autistic participants and social partners. RCIs demonstrated that two autistic participants experienced meaningful improvements in social skills knowledge, social responsiveness, and/or quality of socialization, and one showed meaningful improvement in empathic/social self-efficacy, social anxiety, and/or quality of life. Changes were relatively stable from post-intervention to follow up. CONCLUSIONS: Findings demonstrate promising results toward the adapted PEERS-YA intervention as a feasible option for teaching social skills, improving empathic self-efficacy, and increasing social responsiveness amongst autistic undergraduates, with mixed findings regarding benefits to social partners.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2026 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2025.105203