Abstract
We examined Participants' sections of all research articles published in four journals, from 1993 through 2001, to determine how the authors described participants in research in mental retardation. Approximately two-thirds of research articles during that period have consistently described participants by the diagnostic categories (mild, moderate, severe, and profound) from the 1983 AAMR diagnostic manual (Grossman, 1983). An average of 10% of research articles described participants in terms of the 1992 AAMR manual (Luckasson et al., 1992), which eliminated the diagnostic categories of the 1983 manual. Only an average of 4% of research articles described participants as persons with a developmental disability. Possible reasons for these trends are discussed.
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