NCT05949086

An Online Evaluation of Work Chat

An Online Evaluation of Work Chat: A Virtual Workday Among Employed Autistic Adults

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 234 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Michigan · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

This study is aiming to see if it is feasible for the intervention Work Chat to be delivered in a completely online setting to adults with autism spectrum disorder.

Detailed description

Nearly 50,000 youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) transition from high school to adult life each year, with only 25% of these transition-age youth with ASD (TAY-ASD) getting jobs within 2 years of graduation. TAY-ASD's ability to sustain employment is even more challenging due in part to their social cognitive deficits (e.g., poorly reading social cues) that disrupt communicating with customers, coworkers, and supervisors. Research shows nearly 90% of job dismissals among TAY-ASD are attributed to poor work-based social functioning (e.g., poorly communicating with upset customers). The subsequent unemployment has damaging effects on their mental, physical, and economic health. A critical gap in federally-mandated services to support youth with ASD as they transition from school-to-adult life is the lack of evidence-based practice to enhance their work-based social functioning. Given that TAY-ASD report computerized training tools are highly acceptable and improve their real-world outcomes, the investigators propose to address this critical barrier to sustained employment by developing and evaluating a novel and scalable computerized training tool to enhance their conversations with customers, coworkers and supervisors at work. The investigators are aiming to see if it is feasible for Work Chat to be delivered in a completely online setting and not within schools or other sites. The investigators are also evaluating the tool specifically with employed adults who have autism spectrum disorder.

Conditions

• Autism Spectrum Disorder

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Work Chat	Work Chat will be a simulation training using virtual characters to role-play conversations. It will contain conversations with a coworker, a customer, and a supervisor within a workplace setting.

Timeline

• Start date: 2023-07-07
• Primary completion: 2025-07-25
• Completion: 2025-07-25
• First posted: 2023-07-17
• Last updated: 2025-12-08

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States