Reporting of Socioeconomic Status in Pediatric Language Research

This study examined language-focused research articles published in 3 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association journals to: (a) determine the proportion that reported the socioeconomic status (SES) of pediatric participants and (b) identify the indicators used to represent SES in these articles.

Researchers reviewed articles published from 2000-2015 in Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, and the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research (language section) that involved pediatric participants and focused on language development, as well as on assessment and intervention for language disorders.

For the 3 journals combined, 417 out of the total 652 (64%) pediatric language articles reported SES of the participants. Over the 16-year period there was an increase in SES reporting of 31.8% (55.6% to 73.3%). The types of SES indicators used represented education, income, and occupation.

Although SES reporting for pediatric participants in language-based studies increased over the 16-year period examined, over 1 quarter of studies published in the 3 journals combined still do not report SES. This is a concern. When determining the generalizability of research findings to specific children, it is important for speech-language pathologists to be able to identify the SES background of research participants.