8.6 Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS®)

Abstract

Social deficits are considered a hallmark feature among those with ASD (Reichow and Volkmar, 2010), with many neurodiverse youth reporting a lack of friendships and increased rates of bullying (Lung et al., 2019), both of which are known to relate to poor mental health outcomes (Wolke and Lereya, 2015). Despite the negative consequences associated with social challenges, including increased rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation/attempts (Wright and Wachs, 2019), few empirically supported social skills interventions exist for this highly vulnerable population (Moody and Laugeson, 2020).