Background: Research suggests that persons with intellectual disabilities (ID) are expected to be more compliant than persons without disabilities and that expectations for compliance begin in childhood. No study, however, seems yet to have included a primary focus on the participatory rights, or rights to express opinions, desires and preferences…

Taking a different perspective to traditional case studies on one bilingual child, this book discusses the whole family and the realities of life with two or more children and languages. What do we know about the language patterns of children in a growing and evolving bilingual family? Which languages do the siblings prefer to speak to each other?…

"Parenthood" is a television show that revolves around one family, the Bravermans, including several adult siblings and their respective families. Two parents, Adam and Kristina, have a son named Max. The show follows them as they notice Max's curious behavior and his diagnosis with Asperger's syndrome (AS) early in Season 1. This article details…

Nonmaternal care of infant children is increasingly common, but there is disagreement as to whether it is harmful for children. Using data from 9,185 children (5 years and older) who participated in the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, the current study compared 2 groups: those for whom nonmaternal care was initiated in the…

Research has shown that low birth weight is linked to infant mortality as well as longer term outcomes. This paper examines the medium term outcomes that may link low birth weight to adult disadvantage using a national longitudinal sample with a large sample of siblings (Add Health). Results show strong effects on several educational outcomes,…

Some individuals with autism engage in physical aggression to an extent that interferes with not only their quality of life, but also that of their parents and siblings. Behavioral and psychopharmacological treatments have been the mainstay of treatments for aggression in children and adolescents with autism. We evaluated the effectiveness of a…

Youth who experience adverse environments in early life initiate sexual activity at a younger age, on average, than those from more advantaged circumstances. Evolutionary theorists have posited that ecological stress precipitates earlier reproductive and sexual onset, but it is unclear how stressful environments interact with genetic influences on…

This doctoral thesis contributes to the literature on helicopter parents, and their relation to student development theory. A secondary examination of approximately 1800 randomized results from the 2007 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) was tested using the following statistical tests: Mann-Whitney Test, Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test,…

Social and play skills are important developmental tasks for young children. Typically developing children learn appropriate social skills quite naturally and without specific intervention while interacting with other children in playful environments. Young children with disabilities, however, usually need social skills interventions, and these…

This study of 59 undergraduate men and 85 undergraduate women explored how defining emotional and physical sibling abuse affected the frequency of reported sibling abuse. In addition, the current study examined how the emotional context of the sibling relationship (i.e., rivalry and conflict) moderated the relationship between sibling abuse and…

Disclosure, or revealing personal information to others, is important for the development and maintenance of close relationships (Jourard, 1971; Rotenberg, 1995). More recently within developmental psychology, however, the focus has been the study of adolescent disclosure to parents as a means of information management regarding their daily…

Background: We may improve our understanding of the role of common versus unique risk factors in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) by examining ADHD-related cognitive deficits in single- (SPX), and multi-incidence (MPX) families. Given that individuals from multiplex (MPX) families are likely to share genetic vulnerability for the…

The outcomes for children in kinship care are generally seen as positive in terms of identity formation, stability of placement, behavioural and mental health outcomes, enabling siblings to live together and child protection. However, there is some disquiet about the length of time children stay with relatives; agencies are not sure about how best…

The present study explored the prevalence of self-reported stuttering in a Finnish twin population and examined the extent to which the variance in liability to stuttering was attributable to genetic and environmental effects. We analyzed data of 1728 Finnish twins, born between 1961 and 1989. The participants were asked to complete a…

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) symptoms are present in unaffected relatives and individuals from the general population. Results are inconclusive, however, on whether unaffected relatives have higher levels of quantitative autism traits (QAT) or not. This might be due to differences in research populations, because behavioral data and molecular…