2016 Gatlinburg Conference Poster
PS-86
Title: Cognitive Empathy as a Predictor of Social Skills Improvement for Adolescents with ASD Following the UCLA PEERS®
Program
Authors: Lijing Zhang, James Yang, Elina Veytsman, Elizabeth Laugeson
Introduction: Empathy involves the capacity to recognize, identify, understand, and experience the emotional states of others,
and is essential to the development and maintenance of meaningful relationships (Davis, 1980). In particular, empathy requires
both the ability to share the emotional experience of the other person (affective component) and an understanding of the other
person's experience (cognitive component) (Decety & Jackson, 2004; Eisenberg & Eggum, 2009; Hodges & Klein, 2001). BaronCohen and Wheelwright (2004) characterize high functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as an empathy disorder, arguing
that those with ASD often lack empathy and are unresponsive to socio-emotional cues. The Program for the Education and
Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS®) is an evidence-based, caregiver-assisted social skills training program (Laugeson &
Frankel 2010), which has been shown to improve social skills and empathy in youth with ASD without intellectual disabilities.
While improvements in empathy have been observed, the extent to which empathy at post-treatment is related to improvement
in social skills following PEERS® has yet to be examined. The present study examines the relationship between post-treatment
levels of empathy and improvement in social skills for adolescents with ASD following the PEERS® social skills intervention.
Methods: Participants in this study included 90 adolescents (67 males, 23 females) with ASD ranging from 11-18 years of age
(M=13.86, SD= 1.76) and their parents who presented for social skills treatment through the UCLA PEERS® Clinic. Adolescents
and parents attended weekly 90-minute group treatment sessions over a 14-week period. Skills related to making and keeping
friends and handling peer conflict and rejection were taught through didactic instruction using concrete rules and steps of social
etiquette, role-play demonstrations of targeted skills, in-session behavioral rehearsal activities, and parent-assisted weekly
socialization homework assignments. In order to understand the relationship between empathy and social skills improvement
following treatment, parents completed the Social Skills Improvement System (SSIS; Gresham & Elliot, 2008) pre-and-post
intervention. Empathy was assessed at post- intervention through parent reports on the Empathy Quotient (EQ; Baron-Cohen &
Wheelwright, 2004), which assesses empathy levels among adolescents with ASD. Pearson correlation coefficients were
calculated to examine the relationship between parent-reported EQ following treatment and the change in parent reported SSIS
from pre- to post-test.
Results: Results indicate that cognitive empathy on the EQ following treatment was associated with improvement in
Communication (p<.05), Assertion (p<.01), and Internalizing Problem Behaviors (p<.05) on the SSIS. No statistically significant
correlations were observed between total scores on the EQ, SSIS, or other subscales.
Discussion: These findings suggest that adolescents with ASD whose parents reported higher cognitive empathy following the
PEERS® program were more likely to have better communication skills, assertion, and exhibit less internalizing problem behaviors
following treatment. These findings are useful in distinguishing those who may be more likely benefit from targeted social skills
treatment.
References/Citations:
• Baron-Cohen, S., & Wheelwright, S. (2004). The empathy quotient: an investigation of adults with Asperger syndrome or
high functioning autism, and normal sex differences. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 34(2), 163-175.
• Davis, M. H. (1980). A multidimensional approach to individual differences in empathy. JSAS Catalog of Selected
Documents in Psychology, 10, 85.
• Decety, J., & Jackson, P. L. (2004). The functional architecture of human empathy. Behavioral and cognitive
neuroscience reviews, 3(2), 71-100.
• Eisenberg, N., & Eggum, N. D. (2009). Empathic responding: Sympathy and personal distress. The social neuroscience of
empathy, 71-83.
• Klein, K. J., & Hodges, S. D. (2001). Gender differences, motivation, and empathic accuracy: When it pays to understand.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27(6), 720-730.
• Laugeson, E. A., & Frankel, F. (2011). Social skills for teenagers with developmental and autism spectrum disorders: The
PEERS treatment manual. New York, NY: Routledge.