Abstract
This study captured the experiences of 35 autistic adolescents and their parents after completing a 16-session variant of social skills group training KONTAKT® (ACTRN12617001117303). Semi-structured interviews explored participants' and relatives' perceptions of KONTAKT® and associated social outcomes. Adolescents were classified as either high (HR, n = 23) or low (LR, n = 12) responders based on the primary outcome effects during the previous trial. Thematic analysis revealed that both HR and LR participants their parents were satisfied with KONTAKT®, noting consistent patterns of improvement in adolescents' social understanding, communication, relationships, and empowerment, although positive reports were more frequent among HR than LR groups. This study enhances the understanding of the impact of SSGT, which is key in improving their content, principles, and administration.
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Funding
This project was funded by the Stan Perron Charitable Trust. The views of the funders had no influence on the content of this paper. We acknowledge the generous support from the staff at the Karolinska Institutet for Neurodevelopmental Disorders (KIND) and the Stockholm Health Services, and the staff at the Autism Association of Western Australia who were our partners in the delivery of the interventions and the cross-cultural adaptation. We would also like to thank the autistic adolescents and their parents who took part in the interviews. We acknowledge the funding received from Stan Perron’s Charitable Trust which made this study possible.
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All authors contributed to the conception and design of this study. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Bahareh Afsharnejad, Sonya Girdler, Marita Falkmer, Tanya Picen, Melissa H Black and Sven Bölte. The first draft of the manuscript was prepared by Bahareh Afsharnejad with all authors contributing to and commenting on subsequent drafts. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
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Throughout this manuscript, the term ‘autistic’ is used to describe individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder as it is the preferred terminology amongst autistic adults (Kenny et al., 2016).
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Afsharnejad, B., Falkmer, M., Picen, T. et al. “I Met Someone Like Me!”: Autistic Adolescents and Their Parents’ Experience of the KONTAKT® Social Skills Group Training. J Autism Dev Disord 52, 1458–1477 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-021-05045-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-021-05045-1