Treinamento de habilidades sociais para autistas adultos: impacto nas habilidades sociais, saúde mental e autoeficácia

Abstract

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by compromised communication and social interactions. Mental health issues are common in autistic adults, although this age group is still little studied. Having a good set of Social Skills (SS) can be a protective factor for mental health and self-efficacy, another dimension that might be compromised in autistics. Thus, this research aims to evaluate and train social skills in autistic adults, while its main research problem is “is it possible to improve indicators of SS, mental health and self-efficacy in autistic adults with a Social Skills Training (SST)?”. To achieve this goal and answer this question, two studies were conducted. Both studies used as instruments a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Social Skills Questionnaire (CHASO), the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) and the General Self-Efficacy Scale. The first study aimed to identify characteristics of mental health (anxiety, stress and depression), of social skills and of self-efficacy on level 1 autistic adults; to relate their SS set, their mental health and their self-efficacy beliefs and to analyze the prediction of the variables mental health and social skills on the variable self-efficacy. The sample was composed of 165 level 1 autistic adults. The sample’s age varied from 25 to 34 years old, with 68 (41.20%) of participants falling into this age range (M=1,99, SD=0,98). Data analysis was conducted using Pearson correlation (r) and a Multiple Linear Regression. Results indicated that the sample had high mental health problems indicators, as well as social skills deficits, while their self-efficacy perception was slightly below average. It was concluded that mental health and social skills can meaningfully predict self-efficacy. The second study aimed to create, to implement and to evaluate an SST for autistic adults regarding their SS set, mental health and self-efficacy; to decrease mental health indicators and promote social skills and self-efficacy beliefs post-test on the quasi-experimental group compared to the pre-test and to compare the self-efficacy beliefs, mental health and SS set of both control and quasi-experimental groups on pre and post-test. The sample was divided into control group (n=8) and quasi-experimental group (n=7). The SST had eight sessions, which mixed dynamics and theory. Data analysis was conducted using the Mann Whitney test (U), Wilcoxon test and JT Method. Results indicated that the SST wasn’t effective on promoting SS nor self-efficacy, though some participants had better outcomes on CHASO. There were, however, significant changes in Depression scores, indicating that the SST can promote mental health on autistic people. Thus, this research hopes to have contributed to a better understanding of autistic adult’s needs and to promoting well-being in this population.