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Shared housing in the private rental sector (PRS) is becoming a globally significant household arrangement. However, research indicates that shared housing is associated with problems including financial and housing insecurity. Given the growth of shared housing in the PRS, it is necessary for policy solutions to appropriately address the needs of shared housing renters. This paper aims to investigate the relationship between housing policy and non-commercial shared housing in the PRS – that is, autonomous households in self-contained dwellings – and how this has been conceptualised and examined in academic scholarship thus far. To achieve these aims, we conduct a scoping review on non-commercial shared housing in the PRS. Research illustrates that the reality of shared housing is not accommodated well in existing housing policy systems. We analyse reasons that housing policy may not adapt easily to non-commercial shared housing, and outline the need for further research on policy implications and recommendations about shared housing in the PRS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on housing cooperatives and cohousing stems largely from social democratic countries. Contexts with less empirical evidence like liberal economy countries (LEC), studies centre on housing design, governance and time use. Evidence in Hispanic American countries (HAC) is also limited, raising critical questions about our current understanding of housing commons in global south contexts. Furthermore, there is a scarcity of analyses investigating residents' motivations and lived experiences of home via residents' voices across HAC and LEC. Addressing this knowledge gap, a scoping review was conducted through a relational perspective guided by the PRISMA methodology, which resulted in the analysis of 58 peer-reviewed articles. Results reveal that economic and socio-political drivers represent the main reasons for living in these communities. The residents' lived experience yielded five areas: social capital, economic, environmental, design and knowledge generation/transfer. Findings indicate that even when cooperatives and cohousing are different in their vision, both require autonomy and an active role for residents during the home-making process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractShared housing in the private rental sector (PRS), where people rent with non-family, is becoming more significant across many countries. However, from a housing justice lens, it is unclear whether housing policies and regulations based on normative understandings of households are equipped to effectively support shared housing renters. Through a case study of Australia, which operates on a ‘consumer protection’ model of rental regulation, we ask how current Australian rental regulations enable or restrict housing justice for people in shared housing in the PRS. We conduct a critical discourse analysis of consumer-oriented tenancy information published by Australian state governments and identify explicit or implicit risks in the text that may be experienced by shared housing renters. Results indicate that risks in relation to finance, eviction, and disputes are variously not acknowledged within the text or responded to with warning, guidance, or stated inability to help. We argue that the unfair distribution of risk in shared households, coupled with the severity of the consequences, constitutes a form of housing injustice. We suggest how the consumer protection framework of rental regulation could be amended to advance housing justice and assist shared housing renters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Younger siblings of autistic children are at a high likelihood (HL) of autism, language, and/or cognitive delays. Vocal complexity, a continuous measure of the developmental maturity of vocal communication, is facilitated by parent-child interaction and predicts language outcomes. This study examined whether parents' intervention fidelity to Project ImPACT, a 12-week, parent-mediated, naturalistic developmental behavioral intervention (NDBI), mediated the effect of Project ImPACT on parents' verbal responsiveness (post-intervention) and children's vocal complexity (3 months post-intervention). Participants were 54 12- to 24-month-old HL child-parent dyads who received 12 weeks of Project ImPACT (n = 28) or business-as-usual (n = 26). Project ImPACT indirectly improved both parents' verbal responsiveness and children's vocal complexity by improving parents' use of the intervention techniques. The efficacy of Project ImPACT in supporting early social communication might be attributed to how Project ImPACT helps parents improve the quality and frequency of their use of the intervention strategies across children's everyday settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sheds new light on informal-formal renting through the integration of paying rent to families within a 'modes' of renting typology framework. While private rental housing has long comprised a mix of informal and formal practices dualistic conceptions of informality and formality are being challenged as housing research explores emergent family and sharing economies alongside financialized and rentier economies. Well-used concepts of property rights and tenure or de jure occupancy are expanded to incorporate more nuanced measures of de facto occupancy, particularly relating to the family economy in which we argue represents a form of diffuse informality not well captured in national data collections based on tenure alone. Applying this conceptualisation within an Australian survey of more than 2,870 individual renters within the informal-formal market, we find that informal renting within families is pervasive. Our findings are suggestive of structural changes where a sizable cohort of discouraged and tactical renters are locked out of or bypassing mainstream rental markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the changing Australian housing policy context due to rental and ownership crises and growing waiting lists for social housing access. Topics include the benefits and challenges of participatory policy methods, limited use of tenant participation in national housing policy, and the potential for future policy development through participatory methods.

The article explores gendered housing issues, revealing gender disparities in housing opportunities, assistance, and impacts, aiming to inform gender-responsive housing policies and data frameworks.

Early imitation challenges for children with autism are thought to contribute to broader delays in their social communication development. As such, imitation is an important intervention target for young children with and showing early signs of autism, and efforts are underway to disseminate evidence-based imitation interventions into community settings. To our knowledge, there are currently no established imitation assessments that have been validated for use in virtual contexts. This study was designed to examine the reliability and validity of two caregiver-implemented imitation measures delivered with support from a remote virtual assessor. Study participants (177 caregiver-child dyads) were enrolled in a large, multisite study that is examining the effectiveness of a caregiver-implemented intervention delivered through the Part C early intervention (EI) system across four states. Results indicate that the assessments can be administered remotely with strong fidelity, internal reliability, predictive validity, discriminant validity, convergent validity, and sensitivity to change. Stability over time was adequate. These findings suggest that imitation skills can be measured effectively using a remote caregiver-implemented assessment, which provides greater opportunity for virtual clinical trials targeting social communication in young children. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: The trial protocol was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT05114538)., (© 2024 The Author(s). Autism Research published by International Society for Autism Research and Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic required behavioral researchers to rapidly pivot to the implementation of remote study protocols to facilitate data collection. Remote implementation required robust and flexible research protocols including reliable audio/visual technology that met all the quality, security, and privacy hallmarks of lab-based equipment, while also being portable and usable by nontechnical staff and participants. The project's primary purpose was to develop a technology kit that could be deployed for data collection in homes with young children. The secondary objective was to determine the feasibility of the kit for use longitudinally across four disparate sites., Method: User-centered design principles were employed in the development and implementation of a technology kit deployed across urban, suburban, and rural participant locations in four states. Preliminary feasibility and usability data were gathered to determine the reliability of the kit across three timepoints., Results: In study 1, a technology kit was constructed addressing all project needs including the provision of the internet to connect remotely with participants. Staff training protocols and participant-facing materials were developed to accompany deployment procedures. In study 2, data gathered in technology logs demonstrated successful capturing of video footage in 96% of opportunities with most technology challenges mitigated. Subsequent behavioral coding indicated 100% of captured assessment footage has been successfully coded to date. Moreover, participants needed less support for technology setup at their later timepoints, and staff rated the kit as highly usable., Conclusion: This study offers a model for future development of technology use in remote community- and home-based pediatric research., (Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Pediatric Psychology 2024.)