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

Abstract 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.