The Critical Partnership: Family Engagement and Systemic Change

Parent/caregiver involvement transforms PEERS from a discrete intervention into a sustainable system of support, improving outcomes while strengthening family relationships.

The PEERS program's distinctive parent/caregiver component fundamentally enhances its effectiveness by creating consistent support for skill development across contexts. Unlike traditional social skills interventions where learning remains confined to the clinical setting, PEERS explicitly trains parents as social coaches who can prompt, reinforce, and troubleshoot skills in real-world situations. Research consistently demonstrates that this active parent involvement significantly improves skill generalization, with studies showing that programs including parent training produce maintenance of gains at 1–5 year follow-up compared to rapid skill deterioration in programs without parent components [1][2]. This approach acknowledges that social skill development requires ongoing practice and feedback beyond the limited duration of formal intervention.

Beyond supporting skill development, the parent/caregiver component produces notable secondary benefits for family functioning. Parents frequently report reduced conflict around social situations, improved communication about peer challenges, and decreased parental stress related to their child's social difficulties [3][4]. These improvements stem from parents gaining greater understanding of their child's social experience alongside concrete strategies to support social development without inadvertently hindering independence. The shared language and structured approach to addressing social challenges creates a collaborative problem-solving dynamic that research links to improved parent-child relationships and increased parental self-efficacy [4][5].

For referring professionals, these family-level outcomes represent a significant advantage when considering appropriate interventions. Many parents of neurodivergent youths report feeling inadequately equipped to support their child's social development, often receiving contradictory advice or relying on intuitive approaches that may not align with their child's learning style. The PEERS parent curriculum addresses this gap by providing evidence-based strategies specifically designed for supporting neurodivergent social development [6]. This family systems approach means that the benefits of PEERS continue long after the formal program ends, with parents able to apply the coaching framework to new social challenges as they emerge across development [7].

Resources:

1. Laugeson, E. A., Frankel, F., Gantman, A., Dillon, A. R., & Mogil, C. (2012). Evidence-based social skills training for adolescents with autism spectrum disorders: The UCLA PEERS Program. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 42(6), 1025–1036. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-011-1339-1

2. Schohl, K. A., Van Hecke, A. V., Carson, A. M., Dolan, B., Karst, J., & Stevens, S. (2014). A replication and extension of the PEERS intervention: Examining effects on social skills and social anxiety in adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 44(3), 532–545. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-013-1900-1

3. McVey, A. J., Dolan, B. K., Willar, K. S., Pleiss, S., Karst, J. S., Casnar, C. L., ... & Van Hecke, A. V. (2016). A replication and extension of the PEERS® for Young Adults social skills intervention: Examining effects on social skills and social anxiety in young adults with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 46(12), 3739–3754. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-016-2911-5

4. Karst, J. S., & Van Hecke, A. V. (2012). Parent and family impact of autism spectrum disorders: A review and proposed model for intervention evaluation. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 15(3), 247–277. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-012-0119-6

5. Corbett, B. A., Key, A. P., Qualls, L., Fecteau, S., Newsom, C., Coke, C., & Yoder, P. (2016). Improvement in social competence using a randomized trial of a theatre intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 46(2), 658–672. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-015-2600-9

6. DeRosier, M. E., Swick, D. C., Davis, N. O., McMillen, J. S., & Matthews, R. (2011). The efficacy of a social skills group intervention for improving social behaviors in children with high functioning autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 41(8), 1033–1043. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-010-1128-2

7. Gantman, A., Kapp, S. K., Orenski, K., & Laugeson, E. A. (2012). Social skills training for young adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders: A randomized controlled pilot study. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 42(6), 1094–1103. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-011-1350-6