Short report: Examining race, ethnicity, sex, and gender among autistic youth and their educators who participated in school-based research.
Olivia Linkous, Katherine Soon, James D Lee and 5 others
PMID 39056323WHAT IT FOUND
School-based autism research samples included more White autistic youth and fewer Latine and Black youth than expected from their schools.
School staff were also less diverse than the students they served.
Key findings
01The combined sample included 1442 participants: 506 autistic youth, 380 teachers, 297 paraeducators and 179 other school staff.
02The autistic youth sample was not representative of the schools it came from, with more White youth and fewer Latine and Black youth than expected.
03School staff were less diverse than the youth they served, and 78.5% of teachers identified as White only.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
School-level demographic information was not validated, and it came from the most recent school year rather than the year the research data were collected. The included studies were conducted in different schools and cities, so differences between intervention and observational studies cannot be separated from where they were conducted. Earlier surveys recorded sex as male/female and later surveys recorded gender identity, so the merged data mix different reporting norms. The sampled schools were not statistically representative of US national school populations. No autistic people, family members, or community stakeholders were involved in developing the research questions, study design, or interpretation.
Declared interests
No funding or conflict-of-interest declaration appears in the supplied article text. The publication types list U.S. government, Public Health Service and NIH extramural research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that school-based autism research samples represent all autistic students. The youth sample had more White youth and fewer Latine and Black youth than expected from the schools sampled, and the schools were not nationally representative.