The purpose of this study was to understand the social referencing behaviors of children with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD) while visually attending to a videogame stimulus depicting both the face of the videogame player and the videogame play action. Videogames appear to offer a uniquely well-suited environment for the emergence of…

Much research has investigated how children relate to norms taught to them by adult authorities. Very few studies have investigated norms that arise out of children's own peer interactions. In two studies, we investigated how 5- and 7-year-old children teach, enforce, and understand rules that they either created themselves or were taught by an…

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and autism-like traits are associated with deficits in face memory ability, although it is not yet clear whether this deficit reflects a specific aspect of the ASD/autism-like phenotype. We addressed this issue using a neurotypical sample of adolescent twins (N[subscript complete pairs] = 782) drawn from the Twins…

Objective: To describe first-year college student-athletes' friendship contexts and test whether their perceptions of alcohol use and approval by different types of friends are associated with their own alcohol use. Participants: First-year student-athletes (N = 2,622) from 47 colleges and universities participating in National Collegiate Athletic…

Peer relationships are an integral part of social work education. This study examined three types of social ties (academic, friendship, and professional) among first-semester students in a cohort-based MSW program. Data were collected three times during the semester and analyzed using social network analysis. By semester's end, students had an…

Objectives: (1) Compare social norms and perceived peer use between college student cigarette, e-cigarette, and/or hookah users and nonusers; and (2) determine variables associated with social influences. Participants: Undergraduate students attending a large university in the Southeast United States (N = 511). Methods: An April 2013 online survey…

This study investigated whether children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing children matched on receptive language share resources fairly and reciprocally. Children completed age-appropriate versions of the Ultimatum and Dictator Games with real stickers and an interactive partner. Both groups offered similar numbers of…

This study investigated undergraduate students' intention to use wiki technology. An extension of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has been used by taking into account not only students' wiki perceived utility and usability, but also Big Five personality characteristics and two other variables, social norms, and facilitating conditions, as…

Objective: Alcohol media literacy (AML) programs have achieved positive results for alcohol prevention; however, gender may moderate program effectiveness. This study investigated gender differences for an Australian AML intervention. Method: Fifth and sixth graders (N = 165), allocated to an intervention or wait-list control group, participated…

The use of cognitive-based strategies for improving social communication behaviours for individuals who have solid language and cognition is an important question. This study investigated the outcome of teaching Social Thinking®, a framework based in social-cognition, to Chinese adolescents with social communication deficits. Thirty-nine students…

Today's complex issues require technical expertise as well as the application of innovative social science techniques within Extension contexts. Researchers have suggested that a social science approach will play a critical role in water conservation, and people who use home landscape irrigation comprise a critical target audience for agriculture…

In this paper, we explore the role of online social networks in the cultivation of pathways to higher education for refugees, particularly for women. We compare supports garnered in local and offline settings to those accrued through online social networks and examine the differences between women and men. The paper draws on complementary original…

While there is mounting support for the efficacy of alcohol-based curriculum infusion (CI) programs, studies have yielded mixed results. Insufficient attention has been given to nuances in the types of CI. Using a two-group pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design, this study assessed two forms of CI, information-only (IO) and service learning…

This study examined differences between mothers' and fathers' style of interaction and engagement with their preschool-aged children with Down syndrome (DS) and autism. Data was collected from a sample of 27 mother-child and 27 father-child dyads in which all the children were diagnosed with DS or autism. Participants were both parents and their…

Given that early caregiver concerns may be different for children who go on to receive a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder versus another developmental disability, early caregiver concerns may differ for girls. Using a community-based sample of children (n = 241), we examined the extent to which gender differences may be related to caregiver…