Predicting treatment success in social skills training for adolescents with autism spectrum disorders: the UCLA Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills.

The team tracked which teens gained the most from PEERS social-skills groups.

They looked at parent ratings and the teens' own views before and after the 14-week program.

All teens had autism and were in high school.

Kids whose parents said they already had some social skills, but who rated themselves as awkward, improved the most.

These teens made more get-together plans and kept more friends after the group ended.

Boudreau et al. (2015) and Płatos et al. (2022) ran larger trials and also saw strong PEERS gains, so the predictor pattern holds across countries and delivery modes.

Wyman et al. (2020) found that autistic students in special-ed classes did not generalize the skills; Ya-Chih's finding helps explain why: those students may have lacked the baseline parent-rated social skills that forecast growth.

Nickerson et al. (2015) and Titlestad et al. (2019) show PEERS also lowers family chaos and parenting stress, outcomes the predictor study did not measure but that flow from the same program.

Use parent social-skills ratings during intake. If parents score their teen as already having some skills, but the teen feels lost, prioritize that teen for PEERS. Expect the biggest pay-off in friendship gains and generalization.