The transition from secondary education to higher education, work, and independent living is a critical period in the development of all youth, and one that elicits unique challenges for young adults with autism spectrum disorder and average to above-average intelligence. Transition service systems, including secondary and postsecondary education, state-federal vocational rehabilitation (VR), and community mental health (CMH) have struggled to address the unique needs of this increasingly identified, yet historically underserved, group. Educational and employment outcomes have been disappointing and disproportionately poor in comparison to other disability groups. Recognizing young adulthood as a critical developmental period, and noting the bidirectional relationships between social functioning, self-efficacy, and psychological wellness, this mixed methods study examined the efficacy of an empirically-derived, manualized, vocational social skills intervention for young adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (HFASD). Results indicated that the Assistive Social Skills and Employment Training (ASSET) program is associated with: (1) immediate, small to medium-sized improvements in social cognition, (2) long-term, small to medium-sized improvements in social communication among participants with higher socioeconomic status, (3) immediate, very large gains in self-efficacy, and (4) long-term, medium to large declines in reported anxiety. Furthermore, results of the qualitative analysis suggested varying degrees of social skills generalization in employment, social, and family contexts up to two years after completing the program. This study is a unique contribution to the state of the science as it provides validation that vocational social skills training positively impacts psychosocial functioning, including social functioning, self-efficacy, career outcome expectations, and psychological wellness, among young adults with HFASD. Furthermore, these results validate the use of Social Cognitive Career Theory to guide research and interventions with this population. In sum, this study provides level-three (Chan, Bezyak, Ramirez, Chiu, & Sung, 2010) evidence that ASSET can: (1) partially meet the need for manualized, evidence-based strategies to address work-related social skill development among young adults with HFASD, (2) help young adults with HFASD capitalize on the iterative power of bolstered self-efficacy and optimistic career expectations when facing the social challenges inherent to HFASD, (3) mitigate barriers to delivering such services by making them community-based and interdisciplinary, and (4) provide an innovative and efficient mechanism for addressing psychological wellness while targeting transferable skills.
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