Don't ask,don't tell: a systematic review of the extent to which participant characteristics are reported in social anxiety treatment studies

Background and Objectives: This study examined the extent to which social anxiety treatment studies report the demographic characteristics of their participants. One hundred and 56 treatment studies published in English between 2001 and 2012 articles were collected. Methods: Each study was evaluated on whether or not it reported information on gender, age, race, relationship status, education, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, and disability and also the extent to which the racial composition of the sample was described. Results: The majority of studies reported information on age (96.2%) and gender (94.2%), but the percentage of studies that reported anything else is much lower: race (50.0%), education (42.3%), relationship status (37.8%), socioeconomic status (5.1%), disability (2.6%), and sexual orientation (1.3%). One third (34.0%) of studies reported the race of all participants in their samples, while the remaining reported no information or information for only a subset of participants (e.g. “mostly white”). Conclusions: Participants of social anxiety disorder treatment studies generally are not described beyond their age and gender. Standards for reporting participant characteristics of treatment studies (similar to standards for reporting the methodology of treatment studies) could improve clinical researchers’ and clinicians’ ability to evaluate the external validity of this body of work.