| SAMPLE (You will be filling out one of these for each of the 3 articles you hope to use for your video presentation) |
| Reference in APA style | Rava, J., Shattuck, P., Rast, J., & Roux, A. (2017). The prevalence and correlates of involvement in the criminal justice system among youth on the autism spectrum. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 47(2), 340-346. |
| | Scientific Language: It is OK to copy select phrases from the article but use quotation marks around any direct quote and give source page number. I should be able to look up any quote and find it easily. | Translation for Laypeople – your own words, please |
| Study Objective Why are they doing this project? What question do they hope to answer? | To examine “the prevalence and correlates of involvement in the criminal justice system among a nationally representative sample of youth with autism.” (p. 340) | The researchers want to find out how often young people with autism get in trouble with the police and if those with certain issues or characteristics are more likely end up in that kind of trouble. They’re using the kind of sample that lets them make claims about youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in general – not just the people in the sample. |
| Hypothesis Do they state one? If so, what is it? | No | N/A |
| Methods What type of study is this: quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods? What was the study design (e.g. experimental, case-control, etc.)? Describe the sample, including any inclusion or exclusion criteria. What data were collected and how? Was there a survey, a scale, interviews, or something else? How were the data analyzed (e.g., logistic regression, constant comparative method.) | Quantitative Study Data: Focus was on whether young people with ASD had encounters with the criminal justice system (CJS). “We used secondary data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2)… a nationally representative study of youth enrolled in special education.” The survey collected information via telephone interviews with parents/guardians as well as youth who were able to answer on their own. “The study enrolled 11,270 youth nationwide, 920 of whom were youth on the autism spectrum. Our analysis included information from all five waves of the study (every 2 years), in which youth ranged from 13–17 years old in Wave 1 to 21–25 years old at Wave 5. We limited our analysis to the 920 youth on the autism spectrum who had no missing information about CJS in Wave 1.” (p. 341)Dependent variable (what they called the “variable of interest”): Involvement in CJS – yes or no based on “two dichotomous yes/no variables to measure involvement in the CJS based on the survey questions: ‘Has youth ever been stopped and questioned by police, excluding a traffic violation?’ and ‘Has youth ever been arrested?’ If the respondent answered ‘yes’ in a previous wave, they were automatically included in the ‘yes’ category in subsequent waves.” (p. 341-342)Independent variables included: “demographic characteristics (sex, age at time of interview, race, Hispanic ethnicity, parent’s highest educational attainment, total household income, and youth’s conversation ability) and risk factors for involvement in the CJS (ADD/ADHD diagnosis, peer victimization, social isolation, externalizing behaviors, level of parental involvement, and youth’s social and community participation).” (p. 342) Analysis: “We used bivariate logistic regression to test the significance of association between the independent variables and each dependent variable: youth was ever stopped and questioned by police, and youth was ever arrested. Multiple logistic regression was used to estimate the correlation of the independent variables on each CJS outcome for youth on the autism spectrum. All independent variables were included as controls in this model.” (p. 342) | The researchers used statistics to examine the answers of families of 920 youth with ASD who participated in a national survey of special education students. They tried to figure out if youth with ASD who had been stopped by police and/or arrested had certain characteristics (either demographic ones like gender or race, or others, like an ADHD diagnosis or a history of having been bullied). |
| Results How did the study turn out? If there was a hypothesis stated, was it supported or not? If a quantitative study includes statistical results, report some of these: “There was a statistically significant difference in reduction of anxiety between the treatment and control groups (38.9% vs. 15.2%; p<.001).” If a qualitative study reported major “themes,” state some of these. | By the final wave, nearly 21% of youth had ever been stopped and questioned by police and 6.7% had ever been arrested. (p. 343)“At 14–15 years old, 8.2% of youth on the autism spectrum had ever been stopped and questioned by police, but <1% of youth had ever been arrested. By age 21–22, nearly 20% had ever been stopped and questioned, and 4.7% had ever been arrested.” (p. 343)They presented adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for independent variables that had significant bivariate association: “Females had significantly lower adjusted odds of ever being stopped and questioned by police compared to males (OR = 0.23). Youth who exhibited externalizing behaviors had significantly higher adjusted odds of ever being stopped and questioned by police (OR = 1.26) and ever being arrested (OR = 1.73) compared to youth on the autism spectrum who did not exhibit externalizing behaviors.” (p. 343)
(p values varied so are not being listed here) | The researchers found that 21% of young people with ASD had ever been stopped and questioned by police and 6.7% had ever been arrested. Girls were less likely than boys to be involved in CJS, and those with “externalizing behaviors” (like aggression or meltdowns) were more likely to experience this. |
| Limitations Every study has some limitations. Do the researchers name some? If not, can you identify some? | The survey data they used were based on “parent and youth self-report, which could create underestimation of the prevalence of involvement in the CJS due to social desirability bias and recall bias.” (p. 344)“The data used in this analysis was collected from 2001 to 2009, and the true population rates may have shifted since 2009.” (p. 344)“We were not able to examine causality.” (p. 344) | One problem is that when people self-report on things that might be considered shameful, they lie; if some parents lied, the number of youth with ASD having trouble with police the researchers are using is too low. Also, the data were rather old and the researchers didn’t have enough information to claim any knowledge about what causes young people with ASD to have problems with police. |
| Conclusion Do the researchers offer an overall conclusion about the importance of their study and what should be done next? | “As the prevalence of autism rises, so does the number of young adults transitioning into adulthood. More research is needed to identify what puts these individuals at risk of police contact. Since a large amount of the occurrences take place in the early teenage years, it may be helpful to implement school-based interventions for youth on the autism spectrum to reduce misconceptions and increase effective communication when youth interact with law enforcement officials. Additionally, we need research that can lead to strategies that will help law enforcement better recognize and manage encounters with youth on the autism spectrum.” (p. 345) | We need to get research done that will help us educate youth with ASD about contacts with police—what to expect, how to behave—and also help us train police to understand and sensitively deal with people with ASD. |
| Any conflict of interest or other ethical issues? | | None |
| Study Relevance: Your Opinion Will this study have a real life impact on practice or policy? Will it change lives? Or is it a “so what?” study? | | Although preliminary, this is an important study. There is little information on what is happening to youth with ASD in the CJS. It’s important we highlight this issue and find a way to prevent traumatizing experiences with police that will only add to the challenges faced by youth with ASD. |
