Social workers strive to use interventions and treatments that are evidence-based (EB). However, many EB interventions are not validated with people from diverse racial, ethnic, cultural, and linguistic populations. Regarding autism intervention research, of 408 studies on 27 EB practices only about 18% of the studies reported race, ethnicity, or nationality of participants. This pattern is likely to be the case in other social work practice areas. Social work educators, researchers, and students can be on the cutting edge, not only including diverse populations in intervention research but also culturally tailoring interventions for underserved populations.
Populations of focus: Latinx children with autism spectrum disorder and their families; diverse racial, ethnic, cultural and linguistic populations
Links to resources:
- View the full resource library from Center for Diversity and Social & Economic Justice
- View the Powerpoint slides How to do Cultural Tailoring by Sandy Magaña, MSW, PhD
- Learn more about Parents Taking Action (PTA) Intervention, a Psycho-Educational Intervention for Latino Parents of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder
- Read about the study Provider Interaction and Health Care Use, on the health care of Latino children with Autism and other developmental disabilities
- Explore the Bibliography of Articles on Culturally Tailored Interventions by Sandra Magaña
- Learn more about the Council on Social Work Education and the Center for Diversity and Social & Economic Justice
Date: 2019