Long-Term Follow-Up of the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS) with Adolescent Adoptees

Abstract

The present study sought to demonstrate the long-term impacts of the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS; Laugeson et al., 2010) among adolescent adoptees struggling to navigate peer relationships. Forty-one adolescents and their parents from Helder et al.’s (2023) previous study completed follow-up questionnaires 2.5 − 3.5 years following their initial participation in the PEERS program. Results indicated maintenance of gains from post- intervention to follow-up in adolescent reported hosted get-togethers and parent reports of their childs’ social anxiety, social skills, and empathy. Also, while parent reports of their adolescents’ hosted or invited get-togethers did not initially increase immediately following the intervention, results from the present study indicated an increase over the follow-up period. In contrast, the gains that were observed from pre- to post-intervention in adolescent reports of social anxiety, depression, and self-concept were not maintained over the follow-up period. The PEERS program appears to have more robust and long-term impacts on explicit and specific targets of the intervention, namely social skills and social behaviors, and less impact on related factors, such as mood and self-esteem.