PEERS Cultural Adaptations Project
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigating the cultural acceptability of the PEERS Program for use in Scotland and making appropriate adaptations
IRAS ID
289983
Contact name
Leila A Mackie
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Edinburgh
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 4 months, 0 days
Research summary
In Edinburgh we have successfully been using an evidence based American programme called PEERS (Program for the Evaluation and Enrichment of Relational Skills) with teenagers and their parents. The programme targets friendship skills in young people with social communication difficulties including autism. It involves 14 weekly sessions for young people that run concurrently with sessions for parent/ carers who are taught to be “social coaches”. Though beneficial, we are aware that there are cultural differences in some aspects of the programme and believe that it would be improved if we addressed these and adapted it for young people in Scotland.
In order to address these cultural issues the project we have already discussed areas of /concern difference with PEERS group leaders. The next step is this project which will have a two part approach. Part 1: we wish to contact families who have taken part in the PEERS programme to gain their views through interview on NHS Lothian’s Near Me video conferencing system or Microsoft Teams. Part 2: For ecological validity, we wish to discuss identified areas of concern with teenagers with no identified communication issues to gain their views regarding cultural norms, again using Near Me or Microsoft Teams. Following this we plan to write the adapted program and trial it within an RCT for which another application to ethics will be made.
In Part 1 we would like to discuss areas identified by the group leaders as well as give them the opportunity to raise any other areas they identified as a cultural mismatch. Participants would be able to do this at their own home and the interviewer would be located at home also or at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children within University of Edinburgh or NHS premises. Both the parent and the young person will be invited to take part with no pressure that both need to do it. Interviews are expected to last approximately 30 minutes.
We intend to contact families as part of their clinical team, through obtaining their contact details from our NHS records of group attendance and gaining their contact details through TRAK. We aim to interview a maximum of 10 parents and 10 young people.
In Part 2 we would identify “neuro-typical” teenagers attending a mainstream secondary school who would be willing to take part in an interview. The purpose of these interviews would be to gain their views of what the cultural norms for these identified problematic areas are in Scotland, for ecological validity. As for Part 1, participants would be able to do this at their own home and the interviewer would be located at home also, or the Royal Hospital for Sick Children. Interviews are expected to last approximately 30 minutes. Potential participants for Part 2 would be through using the researcher’s social and professional network (essentially family members of friends and colleagues), using a convenience sampling approach with a maximum of 10 participants.REC name
London - London Bridge Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/PR/0082
Date of REC Opinion
16 Feb 2021
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion