Journal Article

Brief Report: Social Responsiveness and Parenting Stress as Predictors of Social Skills Outcomes in Autistic Children Following the PEERS® for Preschoolers Program

Chou, Josh Y., Moody, Christine T., Fisher, Kyra L., Tuli, Sania, Laugeson, Elizabeth A., Aframian, Kimiya

2025

Overview

PEERS for Preschoolers (P4P) is a parent-assisted social skills program for young autistic children, which has shown benefits for child and family functioning (Park et al. in Focus Autism Other Dev Disabil 38(2):80-89, 2023; Tripathi et al. in J Autism Dev Disord 52:2610-2626, 2022; Tripathi et al. in Autism 28(2):390-402, 2024). However, investigation into predictors of P4P program response have yet to be thoroughly explored. The current study aimed to explore the impact of parenting stress and social responsiveness on program outcomes in P4P. Participants included 74 preschool-aged children with historical autism diagnoses and their parents who enrolled in the 16-week P4P program. Predictors of interest were assessed through the Parenting Stress Inventory, 4th Edition, Short Form (PSI-4 SF; Abidin, in Parenting stress index. Psychological Assessment Resources, 2012) and Social Responsiveness Scale, 2nd Edition (SRS-2; Constantino & Gruber, in Social responsiveness scale, second edition (SRS-2). Western Psychological Services, 2008). Results indicated significant improvements on all outcomes following P4P, including child social skills, problem behaviors, social engagement, social responsiveness, and parenting stress. Baseline parenting stress and child social responsiveness did not predict program completion. In regression models controlling for pre-scores on the respective outcomes, neither PSI-4 SF nor SRS-2 scores predicted post-scores. Overall, results are encouraging in its implication that the P4P can benefit autistic preschoolers and their parents with varying degrees of social responsiveness and parenting stress, respectively, upon entry.