Diversity of Research Participant Gender, Race, and Ethnicity in Communication Sciences and Disorders: A Systematic Review and Quantitative Synthesis of ASHA Publications in 2020

Abstract

Purpose: One manifestation of systemic inequities in communication sciences and disorders (CSD) is the chronic underreporting and underrepresentation of sex, gender, race, and ethnicity in research. The present study characterized recent demographic reporting practices and representation of participants across CSD research.Methods: We systematically reviewed and extracted key reporting and participant data from empirical studies conducted in the United States with human participants published in the year 2020 in journals by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA; k = 407 articles). Sex, gender, race, and ethnicity were operationalized per National Institutes of Health guidelines (National Institutes of Health, 2015a, 2015b).Results: Sex or gender was reported in 85.5% of included studies; race was reported in 33.7%; and ethnicity was reported in 13.8%. Sex and gender were clearly differentiated in 3.4% of studies, where relevant. Where reported, median proportions for race and ethnicity were significantly different from the US population, with underrepresentation noted for all non-White racial groups and Hispanic participants. Moreover, 64.7% of studies that reported sex or gender and 67.2% of studies that reported race or ethnicity did not consider these respective variables in analyses or discussion.Conclusion: At present, research published in ASHA journals frequently fails to report key demographic data summarizing the characteristics of participants. Moreover, apparent gaps in representation of minoritized gender, racial, and ethnic groups threaten the external validity of CSD research and broader health care equity endeavors in the United States. Taken together, our findings underscore many shortcomings in CSD research while pointing to several steps that may bring greater accountability, consistency, and diversity to the field.