Emotional Bug-Out Bag: The Effectiveness of an Empathy Intervention Model for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a newly-developed instructional intervention of empathy and social regulation for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The Bug-out bags (BoB) intervention, designed to enhance the emotional and social competency of students with ASD. The BoB model encompassed three instructional phases of basic theory lessons (BTL), action plan practices (APP), and final theory practices (FTP) during implementation. In addition, a learning flow (teacher-directed instruction, student self-directed problem-solving, group-based task completion, group-based reflection) was infused into the progress of instructional phases to promote and enhance the social regulatory process in group-working activities. A total of 76 junior high school students (mean age ¼ 13.7 years; SD ¼ 0.92) participated in this study with assignments to the experimental group of students with ASD (n ¼ 24), control group of students with ASD (n ¼ 22), and the reference group of students with other disabilities (n ¼ 30). To examine the effectiveness of instructional implementation, data were collected from students’ self-report scores on the Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory: Youth Version (Bar-On & Parker, 2000) to compare pre-and-post results among three groups. Results indicated that the BoB intervention was effective in enhancing the empathy and interpersonal competencies of students with ASD.