With growing numbers of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) entering post-secondary institutions, strategies are needed to facilitate the social integration of these students. The goal of this study was to examine the role of various factors in university students’ acceptance of, and intention to volunteer with, a peer with ASD. Both contact quantity and quality emerged as significant predictors of acceptance; however, for those who had experienced direct contact with individuals with ASD, only perceived quality emerged as significant. Moreover, acceptance played a significant role in participants’ likelihood of signing up to volunteer. These findings point to the central role that positive experiences play in attitude formation for this population.

We examined whether parents' ratings of their children's flexibility and ability to monitor their behavior predicted adaptive skills (e.g., ability to complete day-to-day personal tasks, communicate, and socialize) and symptoms of anxiety and depression among children with and without autism spectrum disorder. For both groups, children's abilities to manage and monitor their behavior were strongly related to adaptive skills. Children's flexibility and ability to inhibit inappropriate behavior and control their emotions was associated with depression symptoms for both groups.

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The family is the key support network for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), in many cases into adulthood. The Family Quality of Life (FQOL) construct encompasses family satisfaction with both internal and external dynamics, as well as support availability. Therefore, although these families face considerable risk in raising a child with a disability, the FQOL outcome is conceptualized as representative of a continuum of family adaptation. This study examined the role of child characteristics, including adaptive functioning and behaviour problems, in relation to FQOL. Eighty-four caregivers of children and adolescents (range = 6-18 years) with ASD participated, completing questionnaires online and by telephone. Adaptive functioning, and specifically daily living skills, emerged as a significant predictor of FQOL satisfaction, after accounting for behavioural and demographic characteristics, including child age, gender, perceived disability severity, and behavioural problems, as well as family income. Furthermore, there were significant differences across each domain of FQOL when groups were separated by daily living skill functioning level ('low,' 'moderately low,' and 'adequate'). The results suggest that intervention strategies targeting daily living skills will likely have beneficial effects for both individual and family well-being, and may reduce family support demands.

Purpose Physicians are often asked to integrate clinical decision rules (CDRs) with their own cognitive processes to reach a diagnosis. Clinicians, researchers, and educators must understand these cognitive processes to evaluate and improve the diagnostic process. The authors sought to explore emergency physicians’ diagnostic processes and to examine how they integrated CDRs into their reasoning using simulated cases (with chest pain or leg pain). Method From August 2015 to July 2016, 16 practicing emergency physicians from 3 teaching hospitals associated with McMaster University, Ontario, Canada, were interviewed via a novel “teach aloud” protocol. Six videos of simulated patients with chest pain, breathlessness, or leg discomfort were used as prompts for the physicians to demonstrate their diagnostic thinking. Using a constructivist grounded theory analysis, 3 investigators independently reviewed the interview transcripts, meeting regularly to discuss identified themes and subthemes until sufficiency was reached. Results A model to describe how clinicians integrate their own decision making with CDRs was developed, showing that physicians engage in an iterative diagnostic process that repeatedly refines the differential diagnosis list. The steps in the diagnostic process were: refinement of the differential diagnosis, ordering a hierarchy of risk, the decision to test, choosing the tests, and interpreting test results. Physicians applied CDRs when they had already decided to test. Conclusions To date, CDRs assume a static, linear model of clinical decision making. Findings demonstrate that participants engaged in iterative and dynamic decision-making processes that changed throughout their patient encounter, contingent on multiple contextual features. Understanding these processes could inform future development of CDRs and educational strategies around these decision aids.

BackgroundThe family system represents a critical context within which children develop. Although raising a child with a disability may represent a challenge to this dynamic system, research demonstrates that families have the capacity to demonstrate both maladaptation and resilience in the face of related stressors. In the current study, we examined the psychometric properties of the Family Resilience Assessment Scale (FRAS) among families of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This tool is the only measure of family resilience that seeks to identify within-family protective factors, including the extent to which they rely on adaptive belief systems, organizational patterns, and communication processes. Identifying protective processes utilized by those who show resilience is critical within both clinical practice and research, as it aligns with a strength-based perspective that builds on what families are doing well.MethodsParticipants included 174 caregivers of individuals with ASD (84% mothers). Caregivers completed the FRAS, as well as the Beach Center Family Quality of Life Scale. The 54-item FRAS was submitted to an exploratory factor analysis, using the iterated principal factor method with a promax rotation.ResultsFifty-one items across 3 factors (Family Communication and Problem Solving, Utilizing Social and Economic Resources, Family Spirituality) were retained, explaining 52% of the total variance. The final scale demonstrated convergent validity with the Family Quality of Life assessment tool.ConclusionsIt is our hope that identifying the optimal scale structure will encourage other researchers to utilize this measure with families of children with ASD, thus continuing to advance the study of family resilience within this unique context.

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The results suggest that in young children with ASD, EF difficulties may only become apparent when situational demands require coordinating multiple abilities, as assessed with scales indexing children's abilities to manage their day-to-day EF-related behavior. We suggest that multiple methods are needed to achieve a comprehensive and valid EF assessment in young children with ASD.