Rate My Professor Bahareh Afsharnejad

Dr. Bahareh Afsharnejad is a Lecturer in the Curtin School of Population Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, at Curtin University in Perth, Australia. She is affiliated with the Curtin Autism Research Group and serves as a neurodiversity advocate with extensive experience in autism research and neurodevelopmental disorders. Afsharnejad earned her PhD in 2019 from Curtin University's Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Occupational Therapy, Social Work and Speech Pathology. Her doctoral thesis, titled 'The Development and Evaluation of a Social Skills Group Training for Australian Adolescents on the Autism Spectrum,' employed a randomized controlled trial to assess the efficacy of the KONTAKT® social skills group program. The study found that explicit social skills training outperformed an active control cooking group in improving social responsiveness, goal attainment, and overall social outcomes for autistic adolescents in a community setting. This work underscored the feasibility of methodologically rigorous research outside clinical environments.

Afsharnejad's research specializations include autism spectrum disorders, social skills interventions, mental health for autistic youth, and the experiences of autistic adolescents and their families with support programs. Key publications feature her 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis, 'The Methodological Quality and Intervention Fidelity of Social Skills Group Programs for Autistic Youth: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,' in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. Additional significant contributions encompass the 2023 paper 'The efficacy of the “Talk-to-Me” suicide prevention and mental health education program for tertiary students: a crossover randomised control trial' in European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry; the 2021 randomized controlled trial 'KONTAKT® social skills group training for Australian adolescents with autism spectrum disorder' and the qualitative study '“I Met Someone Like Me!”: Autistic Adolescents and Their Parents’ Experience of the KONTAKT® Social Skills Group Training,' both in prominent journals; and the 2020 feasibility study 'Cross-Cultural Adaptation to Australia of the KONTAKT© Social Skills Group Training Program for Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder.' Her research has accumulated 249 citations on Google Scholar. As a Level 1 higher degree by research supervisor, she oversees PhD and Masters students, advancing evidence-based practices for neurodiverse populations.