Cross-Cultural Adaptation to Australia of the KONTAKT© Social Skills Group Training Program for Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Feasibility Study.

Publisher: Springer Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 7904301 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1573-3432 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 01623257 NLM ISO Abbreviation: J Autism Dev Disord Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: <2006- >: New York, NY : Springer
Original Publication: New York, Plenum Press.

Cross-Cultural Comparison*; Autism Spectrum Disorder/*psychology; Adolescent ; Australia ; Child ; Feasibility Studies ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Quality of Life ; Social Adjustment ; Social Skills

This study investigated the feasibility and cultural validity of KONTAKT©, a manualised social skills group training, in improving the social functioning of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). KONTAKT© was delivered to 17 adolescents (m age  = 14.09, SD age  = 1.43; 70% male) with ASD over sixteen 90 min sessions. A pre-test post-test design evaluated changes in personally meaningful social goals, symptom severity, quality of life, interpersonal efficacy, social anxiety, loneliness, and facial emotion recognition at pre, post and 3 months follow-up. Focus groups were conducted post intervention. Findings indicate that KONTAKT© may support Australian adolescents with ASD in achieving their personally meaningful social goals. This study resulted in finalisation of KONTAKT© in preparation for evaluation of its efficacy in a randomised controlled trial (Australian New Zealand Clinical Registry (ANZCTR): ACTRN12617001117303, ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03294668).

Keywords: Adolescents; Autism spectrum disorder; Cross-cultural adaptation; Feasibility; KONTAKT©; Social skills group training; Social skills intervention

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03294668

Date Created: 20200410 Date Completed: 20210201 Latest Revision: 20210201

20221213

10.1007/s10803-020-04477-5

32270385