ABSTRACT
Demographics are the background characteristics of the participants in research, such as gender, age, and income. Consider a research project conducted with participants at a local substance abuse counseling center. By collecting demographic information on the participants (age, gender, marital status, types of substances used, length of use, and so on), the researcher can provide readers of the research with a picture of the types of individuals who constituted the sample for the study. This information allows readers to make informed judgments regarding the extent to which the results may apply to their own settings. For instance, if the clients to whom a reader wants to generalize are similar in their demographics to the demographics of the participants in the study, the results are more likely to be generalizable.
