Reporting Demographic Variables in JOBM and JAP: A Comparison and Call to Action

ABSTRACT

Data on participant demographics (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status) can be used to evaluate the existence of disparities and other correlations between the impact of an intervention and people’s intersecting identities (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender) yet these data are seldom reported in behavior-analytic studies. To date, no review has been conducted evaluating the reporting of demographic variables within the subfield of organizational behavior management (OBM). OBM interventions often involve multiple participants across levels of an organization, posing unique considerations for reporting demographic variables and potentially identifiable information in accordance with an organization’s preference for disclosure and human resource policies. Interventions in industrial/organizational psychology may encounter similar barriers to reporting demographic variables. Therefore, we reviewed articles published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management (JOBM) and the Journal of Applied Psychology (JAP) from 2015 to 2021 to evaluate current trends in the reporting of demographic variables. Studies that included participants and presented data (i.e., both applied and laboratory research; N = 205) were included for review and were coded based on the setting, method, and reported demographic variables. Results indicated that age and gender/sex were reported in about half of studies in JOBM and most studies in JAP, but race, socioeconomic status, and first language were rarely reported across journals. Considerations for reporting demographic variables in OBM and the utility of those data are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Demographics
• identities
• intersectionality
• OBM

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Ronan Bustamante, Andrew Smith, and Isabella Tassistro for their assistance with coding articles and calculating interrater agreement. We would also like to thank the reviewers for their thoughtful feedback and our subsequent improvements to the final version of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).