The aim of this research was to compare the mental health of families with children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder or typically developing children, during the first and the second wave of COVID-19 outbreak in Slovakia. The study is mainly focused on the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress among the parents and maladaptive…

Purpose: Set in a Mexican-American community of a US Gulf Coast state, the purpose of this paper was to describe how three young siblings and their family members constructed their spiritual, ethnic and communicative identities within the context of a virtual family literacy program during COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach: This project was…

Mental health problems are prevalent in autistic youth, but the underpinning mechanisms are not well explored. In neurotypical youth, stressful life events are an established risk factor for mental health problems. This study tested longitudinal bidirectional associations between family-level stressful life events and mental health problems and…

Purpose: Child and caregiver sleep occurs in a family system, with socioeconomically disadvantaged families experiencing disproportionately worse sleep health than more advantaged families. The extent to which objectively measured sleep health metrics (i.e., sleep duration, midpoint, regularity, efficiency) are concordant within disadvantaged…

Infants build knowledge by acting on the world. We conducted an ecologically grounded test of an embodied learning hypothesis: that infants' active engagement with objects in the home environment elicits caregiver naming and cascades to learning object names. Our home-based study extends laboratory-based theories to identify real-world processes…

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to identify patterns and experiences of Black or African American military veteran students as they maintained persistence towards completion of their degree. This design used the social cognitive theory, the self-efficacy theory, and the composite persistence model. Three research…

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed severe challenges to health systems and economies around the world. While Australia has fared better than many countries in limiting collective and individual hardship, the impact of personal losses and lockdowns, along with a drastically changed global environment, has had a toll on young Australians especially. As…

This dissertation addressed the topic of early childhood literacy development in the home environment. The dissertation will focus on studying the early childhood literacy experiences a small population (7 to 10 participants) of single mothers living in the municipality of Utuado, Puerto Rico had during this stage of their lives. The single mother…

Objective: To investigate associations between risk in family environments and health-relevant outcomes in college and the role of loneliness. Participants: College students at a state university (N = 360). Methods: We utilized linear regression to examine relationships between risk in family environments and loneliness, perceived stress, affect,…

Song is a regular part of the lives of the little ones, from the family environment to school, where it becomes one of the most used tools in early childhood education due to its educational potential. Therefore, it is important to analyze in detail the content of the songs listened to by the youngest. This research starts with the hypothesis that…

Although broad associations between socioeconomic status (SES) and child executive functions (EFs) are well established, contextual factors that may matter for effects of SES on EF are not fully understood. This study used a bioecological approach to examine factors that may moderate SES-EF relations. A socioeconomically diverse sample of children…

Background: Individuals with Down syndrome (DS) experience health disparities possibly associated with high levels of sedentary behaviour (SB). We systematically reviewed SB measurement, levels, patterns, correlates, consequences and interventions in people with DS across the lifespan. Method: We searched these databases: Embase; PubMed; Web of…

The present study examined the four sources of self-efficacy (mastery experience, vicarious experience, verbal and social persuasion, and physiological state) and how these predict academic self-efficacy over time in N = 1597 (t[subscript 1]) and N = 1373 (t[subscript 2]) 7th-grade students. We simultaneously differentiated three different…

This study examines musical episodes occurring in a family with two young children, collected and analysed through the Language Environment Analysis system, interpreting then using Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory to understand how the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem and macrosystem influenced these episodes. The focus was on two…

In this manuscript we chart the intersection of dis/ability and Afro-humanity. We propose that Afro-humanity is a contextual paradigm within African-centred ideology that can be applied to explore the ways in which disability may be perceived differently when applying a specific, cultural philosophical lens. We also explore the process of…