Although children's school success is a parental goal in most cultures, there is wide cultural variation in the qualities that parents most wish their children to develop for that purpose. A questionnaire contained forty-one child qualities was administered to 757 parents in seven cultural communities in Australia, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland,…

Gastrointestinal symptoms and their relation to physical and mental aspects in adults with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are poorly understood, despite their high prevalence. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine psychological, behavioural and biological factors associated with gastrointestinal symptoms in adults with ASD (traits). We…

Autism spectrum conditions were once seen as a predominantly male condition. This has caused a paucity of information on common events in the lives of women, such as menstruation and menopause. Some smaller studies indicate that autistic women might suffer from increased difficulties surrounding these events. This study aims to investigate whether…

Background: Mentors guide students in their challenges at school and in life. At-risk students in last-resort programs who are at a high risk of leaving school unqualified are especially in need of highly competent and adaptive mentors. This study therefore aimed to identify mentor qualities as perceived by at-risk students and their mentors that…

Aim: This study examines the effects of an intervention aimed at making the primary school pupils aware of their core qualities and promoting their use of these qualities. Method/Rationale: This article reports on a quasi-experimental study among 1346 pupils from 17 primary schools, based on insights from positive psychology. Findings: By using a…

Prior research suggests that autistic adults are at increased risk for developing the core motor components of Parkinson's disease (i.e. parkinsonism) although knowledge is limited to date. Therefore, we explore: (1) the prevalence of both continuous self-reported motor features typical of parkinsonism and the screen positivity rate for…

Vocational identity is a prerequisite for enhancing societal inclusion of at-risk emerging adults. School curricula and rebound programs need insights into individual differences of these youths to effectively foster their vocational identity. Identifying three aspects of vocational identity, a questionnaire study among at-risk emerging adults in…

This study examined self-descriptions of high-performing students and other students and compared the descriptions of these two groups. The concept map, with the open-ended question "Who am I?," was completed by 133 high-performing students and 160 other students. The self-descriptions of these students were subdivided into eleven…

Purpose: Although researchers have explored parental perspectives of childhood speech and language disorders, most studies have been conducted in English-speaking countries. Little is known about parental experiences across countries, where procedures of language screening and services for language disorders differ. The authors participated in the…

Purpose: Very preterm (VPT) children are at risk for speech and language problems throughout school age. However, little is known about early speech sound production in these children. This study aims to present a detailed description of early speech sound production and its trajectories in VPT children from 2 to 4 years of age. In addition, this…

Introduction: Diagnosing dementia in people with severe/profound intellectual (and multiple) disabilities (SPI(M)D) is complex. Whereas existing dementia screening instruments as a whole are unsuitable for this population, a number of individual items may apply. Therefore, this study aimed to identify applicable items in existing dementia…

Secondary school students in the Netherlands already face future-oriented decisions about their educational careers, which are expected to be informed by their interests in specific vocations or occupations. However, vocational interest assessment tools generally do not account for the possibility that students are interested in multiple…

Like all school textbooks, geography textbooks are authored. Almost all textbook research in and beyond geography has neglected their authors. This questionnaire-based multinational research project investigated the perceptions of 71 primary and secondary school geography textbook authors from seven countries in five continents. Though not…

Autism is a heterogeneous diagnosis with symptoms that present in different ways. There is a large variety of interventions for autistic individuals. However, little is known about who chooses which specific interventions. We aimed to explore intervention prevalence and predict intervention use, based on demographic and autism-specific…

Autism spectrum disorder and anxiety are highly comorbid conditions. Understanding the underlying traits of anxiety in autism spectrum disorder is crucial to prevent and treat it efficiently. Hence, this study determined whether social communication difficulties or restricted repetitive behaviors are stronger risk factors for anxiety symptoms in…