Date of Award

6-2025

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Jonathan Baker, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Stephanie Peterson, Ph.D.

Third Advisor

Scott Gaynor, Ph.D.

Keywords

Austism Spectrum Disorder, clinician competence, cognitive behavioral therapy, computerized instruction

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

One in thirty-six children receive an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnosis, and an estimated 5.4 million adults in the United States have previously received an ASD diagnosis (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2022). At least seventy percent of individuals with ASD have one comorbid disorder (Valderas et al., 2009). Some common comorbid disorders for individuals with ASD include depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorders. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is an evidence-based therapy that can support depressive, anxiety and OCD symptoms, and has empirically supported modifications that can be used with the ASD population. However, research reports that clinicians are not aware of these modifications, which impacts accessibility to therapy for individuals with ASD. Maddox and collogues found that seventy-six percent of their participants reported that they did not receive any training in working with individuals with ASD. The current study aims to analyze the effects of computerized instruction to teach clinicians about empirically supported modifications available. Study one will evaluate the effect of computerized instruction which focuses on broad contextual variables of ASD characteristics, when to use a CBT modification, and when not to use a CBT modification. Study two included a modified computerized instruction, where the participants were specifically taught how to analyze a clinical scenario similar to what they were tested on. The results show little to no effect on participants evaluation scores, suggesting that another training method may be more effective at increasing clinician competence in CBT modifications and increase accessibility to clinical therapy for those with ASD.

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