Virtual Interview Training Among BIPOC Autistic Transition-Age Youth: A Secondary Analysis of an Initial Effectiveness RCT
A short online interview class helps BIPOC autistic youth land jobs.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team added a short virtual interview class to regular pre-employment services.
All participants were BIPOC autistic youth aged 18-25.
They met online for lessons, practice, and feedback.
Half the group got the new class right away. The other half waited.
What they found
The youth who took the class gave better mock interviews.
They also felt less worry about real interviews.
Six months later, more of them had real jobs.
How this fits with other research
Morgan et al. (2014) ran a similar program in person ten years ago. Their 12-week group also lifted interview skills, but youth had to travel. VIT-TAY shows the same gain can happen online.
Choi et al. (2025) pooled 18 soft-skills studies and found medium gains across the board. VIT-TAY now adds one more RCT that fits that trend.
Day et al. (2021) surveyed 656 transition youth and saw most hired teens had to interview first. VIT-TAY gives a ready tool for that exact gap.
Why it matters
You can slide this four-session module into any existing transition plan. No extra rooms, no travel costs. Just send a Zoom link and a mock-interview rubric. Expect sharper answers, calmer kids, and more job starts within six months.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BIPOC autistic transition-aged youth (TAY) report lower rates of competitive employment compared to White autistic TAY and even greater deficits with social skills associated with positive job interviewing. A virtual job interviewing program was adapted to support and improve the job interviewing skills of autistic TAY. The current study evaluates the effectiveness of an efficacious virtual interview training program on the job interview skills, interview anxiety, and likeliness to be hired, for a subsample of 32 BIPOC autistic TAY, ages 17 to 26 years old from a previous randomized control trial of the program. Bivariate analyses were used to evaluate between-group differences at pre-test related to background characteristics, and whether VIT-TAY was associated with changes between pre-test and post-test measures of job interview skills. Additionally, a Firth logistic regression was conducted to examine the relationship between VIT-TAY and competitive integrative employment at 6 months, covarying for fluid cognition, having ever had a job interview, and baseline employment status. Participants receiving pre-employment services (Pre-ETS) and virtual interview training had better job interview skills (Ϝ =12.7, ρ <.01; ηρ2 = .32), lower job interview anxiety (Ϝ = .3.96, ρ < .05; ηρ2 = .12), and a higher likeliness of receiving employment (Ϝ = 4.34, ρ <.05; ηρ2 =.13 at the 6-month follow up compared to participants that only had Pre-ETS. Findings from this study suggest that virtual interview training for TAY is effective for BIPOC autistic TAY in improving their interview skills to gain competitive employment and lower their job interview anxiety.
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2024 · doi:10.1007/s10803-023-06022-6