Background: Families in Ireland remain the main providers of support for people with Intellectual disabilities, and the aim of this study was to map their life experiences whilst involving their family members as co-researchers. Materials and Method: This qualitative, participatory study involved 10 focus groups attended by 70 parents and siblings…

This study investigates the formative experiences that nurture ecological habits of mind in youth. The study builds on the ecological habits of mind defined by Moroye and Ingman: caring, a sense of interconnectedness, and ecological integrity. A combination of methods was used in this study: in-depth phenomenologically based interviewing, and…

This longitudinal case study investigated how linguistic identity was constructed, constrained, and performed by three sisters, aged 1, 12, and 17, within one bilingual, transnational Ecuadorian-U.S. family. Data were collected over 14 months through weekly home visits that included participant observation, informal interviews, and…

Endophenotypes or intermediate phenotypes are of great interest in neuropsychiatric genetics because of their potential for facilitating gene discovery. We evaluated response inhibition, latency and variability measures derived from the stop task as endophenotypes of ADHD by testing whether they were related to ADHD traits in the general…

Previous research has revealed only modest concordance in attachment security between siblings during childhood and adolescence. The first goal of this dissertation was to estimate sibling concordance in adult attachment security and identify factors contributing to divergence. The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) was administered to young adult…

Sport is often considered as a promising instrument for reaching a wide array of policy objectives. Social inclusion is one of the goals frequently mentioned. Though one can argue about the feasibility of the many claims made, sport can only reasonably be expected to play a role if the targeted population is effectively taking part in sports. This…

Family dinnertime conversations are key settings where children learn behavior regulation, narrative skills, and knowledge about the world. In this context, parents may also model and socialize gender differences in language. The present study quantitatively examines gendered language use across a family dinnertime recorded with 37 broadly…

Sexuality education in schools continues to be a controversial issue although public debate has seemingly calmed in recent years. Dialogue about the value and purpose of sexuality education for adolescents can provide health education specialists a better understanding of public opinion and online discussion may be a potentially ideal way to…

Recent years have seen a proliferation of research on attrition in L1 speech (de Leeuw, Mennen & Scobbie, in press; de Leeuw, Schmid & Mennen, 2010; Dmitrieva, Jongman & Sereno, 2010; Mennen, 2004). Adding to this line of inquiry, the present study investigates the speech of a 62-year-old bilingual monozygotic twin who emigrated to an L2-speaking…

This study presents findings from analyses of naturally occurring literacy events, where children jointly focus on reading and writing letters of the alphabet, illustrating social constructions of learning created through language and embodied action. Video recorded data from two different families living in an urban low-income area in Tanzania is…

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, yet there is relatively little information on how the removal of these adults from households impacts the youth who are left behind. This study used a child-centered lens to examine the impact of incarceration on the school outcomes of youth who resided with a family member or…

Despite a long-standing tradition of institutional placement in Switzerland, many older adults with intellectual disabilities continue to be supported by aging parents and siblings. For various reasons, these carers and the adults concerned have been overlooked up to now. To find out how many such families are providing housing and care of this…

Demographic and clinical factors may influence assessment of autism symptoms. This study evaluated these correlates and also examined whether social communication and interaction and restricted/repetitive behavior provided unique prediction of autism spectrum disorder diagnosis. We analyzed data from 7352 siblings included in the Interactive…

We describe a survey of children with ASD aged 4-10 years. The main dependent variables were out-of-pocket expenditures for health services and hours of therapy. Multivariable logistic regression models were used in order to find independent predictors for service utilization. Parents of 178 of the children (87%) agreed to participate. The average…

Background: Recent models of the early emergence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) propose that infant intrinsic risk susceptibilities in behaviour may be amplified by interaction within the early social environment into an increasingly atypical developmental trajectory. This study examines whether 6- and 12-month parent-infant interactions in…