Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is strongly associated with socio-cognitive impairments that may result in vulnerability to other mental health conditions, particularly anxiety disorders. This study examined the relationship between anxiety disorders and two key socio-cognitive impairments (cognitive empathy, affective empathy) in 60 adolescents…

Cognitive science has demonstrated that we construct knowledge about the world by abstracting patterns from routinely encountered experiences and storing them as semantic memories. This preregistered study tested the hypothesis that caregiving-related early adversities (crEAs) shape affective semantic memories to reflect the content of those…

The Karen, an ethnic minority group in Burma, have experienced a prolonged state of exile in refugee camps in neighboring Thailand because of ethnic conflict in their home country. Nursery schools in the three largest Karen refugee camps aim to promote the psychosocial development of young children by providing a child-centered, creative,…

Drawing from an ethnographic study on Mexican immigrant fathers and their second-grade children, this article examines the masked realities behind current immigration policies that equate "illegal" with "Mexican immigrant" and how the enforcement of these policies, which overwhelmingly target Mexican immigrant men, affect…

The goal of this small-scale study was to investigate how parental separation behaviours affect the transitional behaviour of infants aged 6-18 months. Thirty parent-infant pairs were observed during the separation process across three metropolitan childcare centres in Adelaide, South Australia. Observed interactions with both their infants and…

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from infants shown sets of familiar faces presented frequently and infrequently, and a set of novel faces presented infrequently, and correlated with infant emotional behavior and cortisol levels. Found that infants scoring higher on the normative ERP factor were more distressed during parent…

Indicates that highly anxious preschool children reduced anxiety levels through play. Compared with low-anxious subjects, highly anxious children engaged in more dramatic/fantasy play forms. Imaginative qualities which children introduce in their play are more essential to the resolution of the conflict than social forms of play.(Author)

Observed the transitions between different caregivers and between waking and sleeping for a male toddler. The transitions were rated according to the affect displayed by the toddler. Results indicated that transitions involving the toddler coming into the care of his parents were less disturbing than those involving his coming into the care of…

Jerzy Kosinski's "The Painted Bird" is used as a case study to illustrate the universal and necessary unity which binds loneliness, hostility, anxiety, and despair over the possibility of communicating within individual isolated human consciousness. (HOD/Author)

The use of differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) and fading of time away from year old boy with Separation Anxiety is illustrated. During baseline, the participant exhibited emotional behavior (i.e., crying, whining, asking to contact parents) as soon as his caregiver left the therapy room. During intervention, the participant was…

Reports relationship between asymmetries in frontal-brain electrical activity and individual differences in affective response in 35 ten-month-old females. Stranger-approach, mother-approach, and maternal-separation experiences were presented while an electroencephalogram (EEG) from scalp regions was recorded and facial and other behavioral…

Probed attachment-related differences in emotional responses to ended romantic relationships. Multivariate analysis of variance revealed that securely attached students recalled a more positive emotional experience after a relationship concluded, whereas persons with fearful and preoccupied styles reported a more negative experience overall.…

Compares the separation distress of 26 19-month-old Downs Syndrome infants in the Strange Situation with that of 43 normal infants who were observed at 12 1/2 and 19 1/2 months to assess whether Downs Syndrome infants responded more similarly to cognitively comparable normals than to age-comparable normals. (HOD)

Presents studies on primates and human infants suggesting that maternal depression may predispose the infant to chronic depression. Findings also suggest that the effect of early separations from the mother may provide a model for reactive depression in the infant. (Author/BB)

Tested the hypothesis that placement stability for foster children would improve if they received help in resolving separation conflicts with their biological families from a group treatment program under the leadership of the child's caseworker. Important lacks in agency practice were revealed. (BB)