ABSTRACT

Objective

The purpose of this study is to present a set of empirically derived effect size distributions to provide field-based benchmarks for interpreting the observed effects of interventions for young children on the autism spectrum, and for planning future studies.

Method

We generated effect size distributions and reported quartile values for each by outcome domain, and by boundedness, proximity, and assessment approach using 1552 effect sizes from 144 early childhood autism intervention studies gathered for a previously published meta-analysis.

Results

Quartile values represent considerable heterogeneity in effect size distributions across outcome domains, as well as variability as a function of outcome boundedness, proximity, and assessment approach.

Conclusions

Our results serve as field- and outcome-specific benchmarks (e.g., contextual guides for small, medium, and large effects) that will help autism intervention researchers easily incorporate information from relevant prior empirical literature when conducting power analyses to plan for future studies. Benchmarks will also assist researchers seeking to interpret the magnitude of observed effects in clinical trials relative to the broader distribution of intervention effects on similar outcomes. Nuanced discussions that contextualize study findings in light of relevant empirical benchmarks will better assist practitioners in understanding the magnitude and scope of demonstrated change relative to studies with similar outcomes and selecting interventions for clinical practice. We discuss the limitations of these data, our analyses, as well as directions for future work.

中文翻译：

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幼儿干预措施对自闭症谱系的经验推导效应大小分布

 抽象的

 客观的

本研究的目的是提出一组根据经验得出的效应大小分布，为解释幼儿干预措施对自闭症谱系的观察到的影响提供基于现场的基准，并为规划未来的研究提供依据。

 方法

我们使用来自 144 项早期儿童自闭症干预研究的 1552 个效应量，根据结果领域、边界性、邻近性和评估方法，生成了效应量分布并报告了每个效应量的四分位值，这些研究是为之前发表的荟萃分析而收集的。

 结果

四分位数值代表结果域中效应大小分布的相当大的异质性，以及作为结果边界、接近性和评估方法的函数的变异性。

 结论

我们的结果作为特定领域和结果的基准（例如，小、中、大效应的背景指南），将帮助自闭症干预研究人员在进行功效分析以规划未来的研究时轻松纳入相关先前实证文献中的信息。基准还将帮助研究人员解释临床试验中观察到的效果相对于类似结果的干预效果的更广泛分布的程度。根据相关实证基准对研究结果进行细致入微的讨论，将更好地帮助从业者了解相对于具有类似结果的研究所显示的变化的程度和范围，并为临床实践选择干预措施。我们讨论这些数据的局限性、我们的分析以及未来工作的方向。