Background: Early in development, caregivers' object labelling contributes to children's word learning. Language development is a bi-directional process, and differences in joint engagement (JE) and language among children with developmental disabilities such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may provide caregivers varying contexts and…

Although evidence of heritability for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is strong, studies of twin pairs suggest that at least some portion of the etiology is attributable to environmental factors, either directly or through interaction with genes. Given the multitude of environmental and psychosocial exposures that have been reported to increase…

Background: Variations in communicative participation of children with developmental language disorder (DLD) cannot be wholly explained by their language difficulties alone and may be influenced by contextual factors. Contextual factors may support or hinder communicative participation in children, which makes their identification clinically…

Prior research on bullying victimization has often explored the behavior from a binary perspective in which victims and non-victims are examined. However, there has been an increasing amount of literature taking a more nuanced approach towards different subtypes of victims in recent years. This study sought to examine heterogeneous patterns of…

Effects from different studies of reading and mindset interventions are inconsistent, pointing to the need to investigate moderating factors affecting response. In this study, we implemented two intensive intervention conditions for fourth-grade students with/at risk for reading disabilities (N = 360). One intervention condition included reading…

Schools are increasingly being asked to identify and monitor youth who may be susceptible to recruitment toward radical groups. Rather than asking teachers to identify at-risk behaviors, Dianne Gereluk argues here that a whole-school approach may help to foster belonging and connection among youth that is not additive, but a central component of…

This critical narrative inquiry explored how white women's racialized emotions are structured by whiteness as a technology of affect (Leonardo & Zembylas, 2013) and connected to particular college experiences. Specifically, white women college students used claims of niceness and demands for emotional comfort as cover for racial harm, while…

Purpose: Cross-national research on cultural differences can help understand what drives, in differing contexts, mentors' commitment to school-based mentoring programs. This comparative study aims to explore whether adult volunteers, from Scotland and Italy, experience being mentors of vulnerable youth differently. Design/methodology/approach:…

Food insecurity is a rising concern in many parts of the world. In the United States, certain populations are more vulnerable than others. One such group is college students. A 2020 report suggests roughly 39% of the 330,000 students surveyed from different colleges and universities experienced food insecurity in the last 30 days (Baker-Smith et…

We investigated characteristics of school-based mental health screening using multiple-gating (MG) approaches through a systematic review of the literature and proportional meta-analyses of screening participation and risk identification. The main analyses included 38 studies conducted in the United States. Pooled estimates indicate that…

Various aspects of parent responsiveness are associated with child outcomes, such as play, language, and social development. However, behavioral coding methods used to measure parent responsiveness vary widely, making comparison of results across studies difficult. The purpose of this scoping review was to summarize current behavioral coding…

Children are at risk of short- and long-term morbidity and mortality from COVID-19. We examine whether autistic children and children with mental health conditions have higher odds of underlying health conditions at high risk of severe disease from COVID-19. We use claims data from a national sample of Medicaid-enrolled children for the years…

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented levels of grief and psychological distress in community samples. We examined unique pandemic grief risk factors, dysfunctional grief, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms, general psychiatric distress, disrupted meaning, and functional impairment in a treatment-seeking sample of people…

Scholars find that social dynamics in online environments help explain variation in cyberbullying victimization. The current study examines how students' in-person activities at school shape the odds of cyberbullying victimization. This focus is motivated by opportunity theory, which emphasizes that victimization can be shaped by involvement in…

The Parents' Evaluation of Developmental Status (PEDS), PEDS: Developmental Milestones (PEDS: DM) and PEDS tools (i.e., the PEDS and PEDS:DM combined for use) are parent-reported screening tools frequently used to identify young children requiring early intervention. An ideal screening tool for all contexts would be brief, inexpensive with…