Samenvatting

The motivation for this paper came from the board of Aksept; a re-integration company specialized in working with people with autism. The request contained an intervention method to increase the self-esteem of the clients. Therefore, the intervention method (so called) ‘Weerbaarheid’ has been developed. During the development came the hypothesis forward:

Will the low self-esteem of the clients, in the age of 18 to 55 with autism who are willing to re-integrate, increase during to the intervention method ‘Weerbaarheid’?

The hypothesis has been examined by using the Self-Esteem Scale of Rosenberg (1965). All 10 clients filled in the questionnaire twice, once at the start of the intervention method en once at the end of it. The results have been analyzed afterwards. Overall the results showed an increasing of the self-esteem of the clients (a small growth of 0.22; scale 1-4). However the growth of +0.22 is not enough to statistically proof that the growth of self-esteem is the result of the intervention method. It could also have been the result of other causes besides the intervention method. If further research will be undertaken one of the most important recommendation is to create more research groups.