Project: Examining Social Validity of Autism Evidence-Based Practices

Effective educational interventions for students with autism are only useful if consumers (i.e., educators, caregivers, students) are willing to use the intervention. It is important to establish that an intervention is not only effective, but also socially valid. We conducted a secondary analysis of studies included in the National Clearinghouse on Autism Evidence and Practice (NCAEP, Steinbrenner et al., 2020) technical report to examine researchers’ use of social validation measures across the autism intervention literature. The main research questions were as follows: (1) What percentage of autism-focused intervention studies assessed social validity? (2) What methods did researchers use to assess social validity? and (3) Who was asked to provide social validity feedback? The systematic review comprised of three phases: Phase 1 article identification; Phase 2 screening for social validity; Phase 3 full text review.