The present study evaluates the treatment acceptability and preference for behavioral interventions for feeding problems with parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and other developmental disabilities. The impact of behavioral severity on acceptability and preference was also evaluated by comparing results of parents who responded with respect to a vignette of a child with food refusal with those who responded to a vignette of a child with food selectivity. Overall, parents rated differential reinforcement of alternative behavior as the most preferred and most acceptable strategy across both food selectivity and food refusal groups. Escape extinction was the least acceptable and least preferred across both groups, and the severity of the behavior had no impact on acceptability or preference scores. Implications for future research on the social validity of feeding interventions are provided.

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(1) Background: The current study leveraged social media to connect with teens with EDs to identify population specific characteristics and to gather feedback on an mHealth intervention. (2) Methods: We recruited teens with EDs from social media in two phases: (1) Discovery Group, (2) Testing Group. The Discovery Group (n = 14) participants were recruited from Facebook/Instagram and were asked to review the app for up to one week and provide qualitative feedback. After incorporating feedback from the Discovery Group, we refined our social media outreach methods to connect with 30 teens with EDs to pilot this mobile app. Recruitment from a variety of platforms on social media was successful, with the majority of enrolled participants in the Testing Group coming from Snapchat (60%) and a large percentage of participants belonging to gender and sexual minority groups (63%). (3) Results: Participants from both groups experienced extremely high rates of depression (100% Discovery, 90% Testing) and/or anxiety symptoms (100% Discovery, 93% Testing) in addition to ED symptoms, and noted this as a possible barrier to app engagement. (4) Conclusion: Use of social media for recruitment of teens with EDs is feasible and may connect with groups who may be more difficult to reach using traditional recruitment methods. Among the Discovery Group there was high acceptability of and interest in an app to support ED recovery, and characteristics of both groups demonstrated need for support in other mental health domains. Future studies should evaluate the preliminary efficacy of such tools among teens to determine the effects of such interventions on ED symptoms and other mental health outcomes.

This study examined dual language learners’ (DLLs n = 24) and English‐only (EO n = 20) children's expressive and receptive language in kindergarten (Mage = 5.7 years) as well as the relation to peers’ language use. Expressive language skills (vocabulary diversity, syntactic complexity) were measured in the fall, winter, and spring (2014–2015 year). Receptive language skills (vocabulary, sentence comprehension) were measured in the fall and spring. Findings revealed increases in children's expressive and receptive language, except in terms of syntactic complexity. Moreover, peers’ vocabulary diversity was positively associated with children's vocabulary diversity. Peers’ syntactic complexity was positively associated with children's syntactic complexity and receptive vocabulary. Findings suggest that peers’ language use may influence DLLs’ and EO children's language learning.

Mental health phone applications (apps) provide cost-effective, easily accessible support for college students, yet long-term engagement is often low. Digital overload, defined as information burden from technological devices, may contribute to disengagement from mental health apps. This study aimed to explore the influence of digital overload and phone use preferences on mental health app use among college students, with the goal of informing how notifications could be designed to improve engagement in mental health apps for this population. A semi-structured interview guide was developed to collect quantitative data on phone use and notifications as well as qualitative data on digital overload and preferences for notifications and phone use. Interview transcripts from 12 college students were analyzed using thematic analysis. Participants had high daily phone use and received large quantities of notifications. They employed organization and management strategies to filter information and mitigate the negative effects of digital overload. Digital overload was not cited as a primary barrier to mental health app engagement, but participants ignored notifications for other reasons. Findings suggest that adding notifications to mental health apps may not substantially improve engagement unless additional factors are considered, such as users’ motivation and preferences.