Search

A number of policies mandate that autistic transition-age youth receive employment services to prepare for the workforce before high school graduation. A key limitation to these services is the job interview component, which relies on non-standardized, resource-intensive, staff-led role-plays to help autistic transition-age youth improve their interview skills. The autism community has called for better job interview preparation. To address this gap in services, our team, collaborated with the autism community to adapt the intervention, Virtual Reality Job Interview Training (VR-JIT; effective among adults with serious mental illness), into Virtual Interview Training for Transition Age Youth (VIT-TAY). This adapted intervention was tailored to meet the needs of autistic transition age youth while maintaining the core components of VR-JIT (i.e., an online job interview simulator with four levels of automated feedback and e-learning content). A pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) demonstrated VIT-TAY's feasibility and initial effectiveness at improving job interview skills, reducing anxiety, and increasing employment rates within six months when added to transition services or pre-employment transition services (Pre-ETS). Thus, the overarching goal of this Hybrid Type 1 effectiveness-implementation study protocol is to conduct a fully-powered RCT of VIT-TAY across 16 schools in various geographical locations. Our specific aims are to 1) Evaluate whether Pre-ETS (or transition services) with VIT-TAY, as compared to Pre-ETS (or transition services) with an active control intervention (i.e., job interview didactics/e-learning with a series of 3–5 min videos of employed autistic adults talking about their career pathways) enhances employment outcomes; 2) Evaluate mechanisms of employment by nine months post-randomization; and 3) Conduct a multilevel, mixed-method process evaluation of the initial implementation of VIT-TAY across settings (e.g., acceptability, feasibility, and barriers and facilitators of implementation).

This study explores longitudinal influences of various factors on Black parents’ involvement in their children’s education. Guided by Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler’s Model of Parent Involvement, this research examines whether parents’ school climate perceptions, attitudes about involvement, self-efficacy, and children’s academic performance predict parent involvement over time. Utilizing data from the Maryland Adolescence in Context Study with a sample of 560 Black parents, we found that positive school climate perceptions and favorable attitudes towards involvement significantly predict increased parent involvement in later years. The results underscore the importance of supportive school environments and parent attitudes in fostering their involvement.

Autistic transition-age youth experience high rates of unemployment and underemployment, in part due to the social challenges they may face when having conversations in the workplace. In an effort to help enhance conversational abilities in the workplace, our collaborative team partnered to develop WorkChat: A Virtual Workday. Specifically, our team of scientists, community partners, and diversity and inclusion experts participated in a community-engaged process to develop WorkChat using iterative feedback from autistic transition-age youth and their teachers. With initial development complete, this study reports on the protocol that our collaborative team developed, reviewed, and approved to conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate the real-world effectiveness and initial implementation process outcomes of WorkChat when integrated into post-secondary pre-employment transition services (Pre-ETS). Our aims are to: 1) evaluate whether services-as-usual in combination with WorkChat, compared to services-as-usual with an attention control, enhances social cognition and work-based social ability (between pre- and post-test); reduces anxiety about work-based social encounters (between pre- and post-test), and increases sustained employment by 9-month follow-up; 2) evaluate whether social cognitive ability and work-based social ability mediate the effect of WorkChat on sustained employment; and 3) conduct a multilevel, mixed-method process evaluation of WorkChat implementation.

This systematic review examined core elements within school-based interventions and supports for Black adolescent males (12 to 18 years of age) and identified themes for research in this area. Several educational, psychology, and social science databases were searched systematically. From this search, 13 published studies met the inclusion criteria and were reviewed for detailed analysis. Our analysis of the literature on published findings for effective types of school-based interventions for Black boys revealed four overarching themes: (1) partnership with local school districts and schools, (2) utilization of family and community resources, (3) provision of educational opportunities for Black boys, and (4) encouragement of active engagement among Black boys through personal and cultural relevance to the boys' lives. We discuss implications for future interventions targeting Black adolescent males. Finally, we propose a call for additional interventions for Black adolescent males and scientifically rigorous evaluation of those interventions.