This research was conducted to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of modified Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills training on emotion regulation, Skills Improvement on Emotion Regulation for Adults (SIERA), for young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A total of 18 young adults with ASD (Mage = 21.1, SD = 2.47) completed a 90-minute weekly group intervention for a total of eight weeks. SIERA was a single group, pre- and post-test comparison of an intervention with the use of a mixed method research design. Results suggested preliminary evidence for significant improvement in psychological flexibility, adaptive emotion regulation strategies, and reduction in emotion dysregulation upon completion of the intervention. Specifically, participants showed a statistically significant decrease in psychological inflexibility/experiential avoidance (M = 30.88 to 25.47; d = .68), a statistically significant increase in DBT skills use (M = 1.55 to 1.98; d = .90), a statistically significant increase in cognitive reappraisal (M = 4.06 to 4.91; d = .89), and a statistically significant decrease in emotion dysregulation such as reactivity (M = 13.69 to 5.00; d = 2.12) and dysphoria (M = 8.54 to 4.62; d = .63). Although participants also showed decrease in dysfunctional coping skills (M = 1.54 to 1.52; d = .05) and expressive suppression (M = 4.13 to 3.71; d = .31), the changes were not statistically significant. In addition, young adults with ASD also found the SIERA intervention was feasible to enhance their emotion regulation skills by presenting their satisfaction of the intervention with positive feedback. The participants showed 100% of completion rate, with a mean attendance of 97.8% across all sessions. The fidelity of this intervention study was 99% across all the groups. The SIERA intervention incudes several implications in practice, education, and research in rehabilitation counseling. In practice, SIERA can be a new type of service for young adults with ASD in terms of facilitating a smooth transition to adulthood by emphasizing a psychosocial aspect of rehabilitation services and informing rehabilitation practitioners about the importance of teaching positive skills. In education, SIERA can contribute to curriculum development of rehabilitation counseling programs and add value to teaching evidence-based practices in pre-service education. In research, SIERA can strengthen the empirical support for stand-alone DBT skills training and suggest a new paradigm in ASD research. Future research is recommended to add more participants and increase research rigor, to generalize the SIERA intervention to heterogeneous groups of individuals with ASD, and to replicate other disability groups.
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