Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

"Children and youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are far more likely than children without ASD to experience mental health problems, including anxiety, depression and conduct issues (Arim et al., 2015; Strang et al., 2016), and families often seek treatment for these emotional and behavioural problems. Conducting randomized controlled trials (RCTs) is an integral component in ensuring interventions are effective for these youth with mental health problems. There is promising evidence for cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), which has been found efficacious in treating affective problems in this clinical population (Weston et al., 2016). However, 20-37% of families involved in clinical research trials are excluded prior to participation as a result of exclusion criteria that often includes aspects of intellectual functioning (Storch et al., 2013; Storch et al., 2015; White et al., 2015). The literature is relatively sparse on identifying factors that may lead to treatment exclusion and lack of service in clinical trials. It is essential to understand why some families are excluded from clinical research, as this may lead to limited generalizability and methodological issues. The Andersen Behavioral Model of Health Services Use (Andersen, 1968), a model widely used to measure access in health care, suggests predisposing (e.g., age, education, ethnicity), enabling (e.g., income, insurance) and needs (e.g., perceived health, clinical symptoms) factors drive access to services. A better understanding of the predisposing, enabling and needs factors that contribute to the exclusion of children with ASD in efficacy trials could help identify barriers in mental health research, improve research methodology in CBT trials and help facilitate health equity."