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Sense of coherence (SOC) is a relevant contributor and predictor of the individuals' mental and physical health. There are a number of studies about SOC, but only two validation articles of the sense of coherence scale (SOCS) were found on adolescents and none on children. The aim of this research was to validate the SOC scale in youth under 18. We hypothesized that younger children and children without psychiatric problems will have higher SOC than older ones, and children with psychiatric symptoms. We also wanted to examine the factor structure of both the 13 and the 29 item versions of the scale to study which is more valid in child and adolescent population. 199 children and 198 adolescents were included in the study; the mean age was 14.3 (SD 2.1) years. The sample included average youth from schools and youth under psychiatric treatment. Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and Inventory of Life Quality (ILK) were used for validation of the SOCS. SOCS-13 was applied to compare SOC of children and adolescents. Children had higher SOC than adolescents in both samples. Males had higher SOC than females in children but not in adolescents. Psychiatric and behavioral symptoms were associated with a lower SOC regardless

Despite their prolonged history of immigration to the UK, studies on Turkish Cypriots' acculturative processes have been scarce. Utilizing 20 semi-structured interviews with three generations of Turkish Cypriot immigrants living in the UK, this paper explores the acculturation processes of Turkish Cypriots by focusing on their sense of self, ethnic and national identity delineations. How do they identify themselves, and what do their identifications suggest about their acculturation? In an attempt to contribute to the empirical studies on the acculturation and identity of "other white" immigrant groups, we argue that there exists a bi-cultural/multi-cultural self with varying degrees of closeness to the host country, as well as hyphenated (British Cypriot), multi-hyphenated (London Turkish Cypriot) and travelling identities that are constructed through experience, time and place. Although there exist some intergenerational differences, it can be said that Turkish Cypriots have been open to the idea of integration starting from the first generation and, in general, have high acculturation, which was evident from the narratives of how they situate themselves within the ethnic and national identities.

This study sought to examine the influence of transcription skills, evaluated using graphonomic measures, on the proficiency of text generation in students attending primary schools in Spain. A longitudinal design was employed involving 278 Spanish students distributed across three cohorts (cohort 1: 1st-2nd-4th grade; cohort 2: 2nd-3rd-5th grade; and cohort 3: 3rd-4th-6th grade). Two data collection points were used to administer the graphonomic measures, and a composition letter task was conducted at the conclusion of the study. Four multigroup structural equation models were employed, examining the direct pathways from graphonomic measures (i.e., pressure, speed, pauses, and road length) on text generation (i.e., length, fluency, planning, revision, and organization). The models demonstrated a good fit to the data. The findings from the four models, analyzed within the three cohorts, indicated that the significant effect of transcription (i.e., handwriting) on text production was primarily observed in Cohort 1 (early grades), while no significant effects were found in Cohort 2 (intermediate grades). This suggests that the importance of handwriting in text production in a transparent orthography may be more pronounced during the initial stages of writing development when students are acquiring foundational writing skills.

This practice report describes a 12-week stand-alone course designed to address the challenges university students face in foreign language classes. Adopting principles of transformative language learning, course content, activities and resources were designed and implemented to dispel myths and preconceptions regarding language instruction, promote self-directed, independent learning, and raise awareness of the cognitive and socio-emotional processes involved in language learning. Students' feedback indicate that the course had a significant impact on their perceptions of adult language learning, their capacity to reflect on their use of strategies, and the importance of developing a plan to continue applying these new understandings in their academic pursuits. The course fostered a shift in students' perspective, from viewing themselves as passive recipients of 'language injections', to becoming self-directed, motivated, and independent learners.

Increasing research reveals the impact of technostress on life satisfaction among academics. In line with the determined purpose, it is first determined whether there is a significant difference in terms of technostress and life satisfaction between demographic variables such as age, gender, field of science and years of experience. Secondly, an answer was sought to the question of whether there was a significant impact of technostress on life satisfaction. To achieve the determined research purpose, the relational scanning model was used. The study involved 342 academic participants working at different universities in Kyrgyzstan who agreed to participate voluntarily. The research was conducted with 342 academics, 207 women and 135 men. To analyze the data obtained, t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson's correlation analysis and linear regression analysis were used. As a result of the research, it was determined that there was a low level of negative association between life satisfaction and the socially focused technostress sub-dimension score among the technostress sub-dimensions. Life satisfaction and general technostress level were determined to be permanent and significant among the technostress sub-dimensions such as profession-oriented, technical subject-oriented learning-teaching process-oriented and personal technostress sub-dimensions. The regression analysis revealed that general technostress emerged, but the sub-dimensions showed no influence on life satisfaction, and that single socially focused technostress had a negative predictive impact on life satisfaction.

The study explored the extent learners' age variances impacted their achievement in a national education assessment in Ghana and how these were moderated by the types of schools (i.e., private and public) they attended. A multistage sampling method was used, and the data were analyzed using a multilevel modeling technique. The sample comprised 19,210 primary grade 3 and 17,088 primary grade 6 learners from 525 and 499 schools, respectively. Relatively younger learners outperformed their older peers in both subjects except for primary 3 mathematics achievement. Schools marginally reduced the age effect on both subjects except primary 3 mathematics achievement, where there was an increase. Moreover, there was a statistically insignificant difference in private and public schools' impact on age-linked effects on subjects except for primary 3 mathematics. The study concludes that being relatively overage for a specific grade level is not beneficial, especially for English language achievement. Hence, enrolling learners at the prescribed age and school term is highly recommended.

Social media has often started to be used as the first source for accessing information. Country agenda, general issues, research, new ideas, entertainment, shopping, instant communication and cooperation are the positive contributions of social media. Excessive use of social media in every aspect of life certainly causes harm. It causes serious psychological deformation, especially on adolescents, whom we call the young group. While social media can increase technical skills in adolescents, it can reduce social skills and communication and even some of the negative effects they encounter in this area can create psychological trauma. While the feeling of inadequacy, comparison and competition lead to psychological problems such as self-confidence and social anxiety; the virtualized perception of beauty poses dangers such as eating disorders in young people. Social media use, which has reached the point of addiction, adds a number of negativities to young people's lives, such as sleep deprivation, decreased time spent with family and loss of interest in real life. In light of all this, the aim of this research is to examining the social media addiction levels of young adults. The sample of the study consists of 201 university students studying in different departments of a state university in Turkey and whose age range is between 18-30 and more age. "Social media addiction scale - adult form" scale developed by Sahin and Yagci (2017) was used as a data collection tool in the study, with permission from the developer authors. In the study, the relational screening method, one of the quantitative research methods, was used. As a result, a significant relationship was detected between the variables of young people's gender, age, daily internet and social media usage and their social media addictions. In addition the average social media addiction scores of university students were found to be high.

The present work explores the potential role of smartphone addiction in mediating the correlation between self-efficacy and Psychological Escapism among university students. The paper's stratified convenience sample comprised 195 students from the World Islamic Sciences and Education University. Validated scales measuring self-efficacy, psychological escapism, and smartphone addiction were utilized for data collection. The findings indicate that smartphone addiction, self-efficacy, and psychological escapism were all found at moderate levels. Moreover, the presence of smartphone addiction as a mediating variable resulted in a significant increase in the proportion of explained variance in the level of psychological escapism attributed to self-efficacy (31%), compared to the absence of this mediating variable (22%). Additionally, while gender and academic year have significant effects on psychological escapism, the demographic elements investigated did not demonstrate any significance with self-efficacy or smartphone addiction among college students. Accordingly, this research points out the importance of developing curative and preventive counseling programs aimed at reducing smartphone addiction and mitigating the level of psychological escapism by enhancing self-efficacy among college students.

With the development of technology, security, a core human concern throughout history, has changed and branched out into new areas. Novel security concepts, including environmental security, economic security, and cybersecurity, have emerged as a result of these expanding areas. The importance of cybersecurity has increased in the linked world of today as a result of how prevalent technology is in our daily lives. This study looks at how the literature on international relations approaches the idea of cybersecurity, with an emphasis on the role gender dynamics play. This study adopts a comprehensive strategy in recognition of the possibility that people of all genders may be affected by the dominant gender roles. The study seeks a comprehensive understanding of cybersecurity by utilizing a mixed-methods research methodology that incorporates both qualitative and quantitative techniques. Conducting in-depth interviews with young adults (ages 18 to 27) who identify as people of different genders will be part of the field research. Various aspects of cybersecurity, such as perceptions of cybersecurity, understanding of security, and encounters with cyber dangers, will be covered in these interviews. The research will be carried out in both Turkey and Italy, enabling a comparison of the cybersecurity laws and conditions in these two nations. This study aims to give a fresh viewpoint by combining theoretical underpinnings with empirical fieldwork. The survey data will also be subjected to statistical analysis. The study's findings will shed light on how young adults' perceptions of cybersecurity are influenced by gender norms and what that means for cybersecurity laws. This research contributes to the larger discussion on cybersecurity and gender studies by broadening its focus beyond gender as a binary construct and offering insightful information about how gender roles affect cybersecurity views across various identities.

Background/purpose: Awareness of the mathematical skills and knowledge children possess in their early years is widely accepted. This includes various common positive aspects, not only for educators but also for researchers and policymakers. This study presents a systematic review conducted to meticulously identify empirical studies published in the Scopus-Index Journal database about the mathematical skills children aged 3 to 8 years old have mastered. Materials/methods: This review followed the PRISMA guidelines and the research database comprised of Scopus-indexed journals. The technique followed used "keywords" and Boolean operators. The screening processes included reviewing abstracts, scanning complete texts of published articles, and rejecting those not meeting preset inclusion criteria. Moreover, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and papers not written in English were also excluded. Of the 801 studies initially identified, a total of 15 empirical studies were included in the systematic review. Results: Children master various math skills from a very young age, mainly in "numbers and operations", but face difficulties in skills related to "algebra" as well as "geometry and measurement". Additionally, several preschoolers' characteristics help to explain the acquisition of these skills, with "age" being the primary factor. Researchers use various research instruments and mainly conduct individual semi-structured interviews. Children's geometry skills and knowledge appear to have been studied to a small extent. The areas of "measurement" and "data analysis and probability" were found to be under active investigation. Conclusion: It is worth noting that not only does a noticeable research gap exist for the math domains of "measurement," "geometry," and "data analysis and probability". Factors that seem to affect young children's math skills, such as "gender", "parents' educational level", and "attendance to a preparatory preschool" need further investigation. The implications of the current study's results extend beyond academia, providing valuable insights that educators and policymakers can leverage to enhance the quality of mathematics education during the early years period.

The purpose of this research is to examine the psychological resilience levels of adult individuals in terms of demographic characteristics and enneagram personality types. The findings may help experts working in the field and contribute to the literature. The study is an original study that has not been researched before. Participants consisted of parents of students attending a pre-school education center. Data was collected from 252 people, 182 women and 70 men. In order to collect data a "Questionnaire", "Brief Resilience Scale" and "Enneagram Personality Scale" were used to collect data. T-test and analysis of variance techniques were used to evaluate the changes in the level of the resilience with demographic variables. Correlation analysis was conducted to determine the relationship between resilience and enneagram personality types. Results of the statistical analysis has been determined that resilience levels are higher in men, older individuals, married people, and those with high education and income levels. Additionally, levels of resilience were found to be positively related to enneagram personality types. This relationship was found statistically significant in a total of six personality types: achiever, original, observer, adventurer, leader, and accommodator. This work contributes to the study of resilience and related factors. Similar studies were proposed for the future to bolster the results.

Effortful control, the ability to suppress a dominant response over a subdominant one, is a fundamental aspect of self-regulation. It has been observed that higher levels of parenting stress are associated with lower levels of effortful control in children. Perceived social support, an important factor in reducing parenting stress, may act as a buffer against the negative effects of parenting stress on children's effortful control skills. To investigate this assumption, we collected data from 199 mothers in Türkiye, who had children between the ages of 3 and 6 years. Mothers reported on their parenting stress levels, perceived social support, and their children's effortful control. Our results revealed that perceived social support moderated the relationship between parenting stress and children's effortful control after controlling for socioeconomic status. Moreover, the buffering effect of perceived social support became stronger as the level of social support increased, subsequently weakening the relationship between parenting stress and children's effortful control. These findings suggest that parental perceived social support plays a pivotal role in mitigating the adverse effects of parenting stress on healthy child development. These cross-sectional findings warrant a longitudinal investigation into the interrelations among parenting stress, perceived social support, and children's effortful control.

Relatively little work has focused on why we are motivated to learn words. In adults, recent experiments have shown that intrinsic reward signals accompany successful word learning from context. In addition, the experience of reward facilitated long-term memory for words. In adolescence, developmental changes are seen in reward and motivation systems as well as in reading and language systems. Here, in the face of this developmental change, we ask whether adolescents experience reward from word learning, and how the reward and memory benefit seen in adults is modulated by age. We used a naturalistic reading paradigm, which involved extracting novel word meanings from sentence context without the need for explicit feedback. By exploring ratings of enjoyment during the learning phase, as well as recognition memory for words a day later, we assessed whether adolescents show the same reward and learning patterns as adults. We tested 345 children between the ages of 10-18 (N > 84 in each 2-year age-band) using this paradigm. We found evidence for our first prediction: children aged 10-18 report greater enjoyment for successful word learning. However, we did not find evidence for age-related change in this developmental period, or memory benefits. This work gives us greater insight into the process of language acquisition and sets the stage for further investigations of intrinsic reward in typical and atypical development.

This study investigated children's and adolescents' reasoning about intergroup exclusion based on social class from educational opportunities in Türkiye. The role of children's and adolescents' perceived contact with friends from different socioeconomic backgrounds on their evaluations of exclusion and personal solutions to the exclusion was also examined. Participants (N = 270) included 142 children (8-10 years old, M[subscript age] = 9.80; SD = 0.82; 53.5% girls) and 128 adolescents (14-16 years old, M[subscript age] = 15.46; SD = 0.91, 61.7% girls) from lower (N = 144) and higher (N = 126) socioeconomic backgrounds. Results showed that while most participants viewed social class-based exclusion as wrong, adolescents were more likely to view it as wrong than were children. Adolescents from lower SES approached social class-based exclusion as less acceptable than did adolescents from higher SES who referred to expectations about conformity to authority and the status quo. Moderation analyses showed that for adolescents from higher SES, higher perceived contact with friends from lower SES was associated with decreased acceptability of exclusion and increased motivation to provide equity.

Classrooms are often noisy environments, which can result in unfavorable learning conditions for students. However, research has insufficiently addressed how noisy classrooms affect autistic students. This preliminary study examined differences in, and the impact of, background noise on reading performance for elementary-aged autistic and non-autistic (NA) children (N = 49). Autistic (n = 13) and NA children (n = 36) between the ages of 6 and 13 years participated in the current study. We employed a repeated measures design where each participant read four, grade-appropriate reading curriculum-based measurement (CBM) passages and subsequently completed comprehension (i.e., retell and recall) tasks in the presence of four different listening conditions (i.e., experimental condition): (1) quiet, (2) a single talker, (3) classroom noise, and (4) white noise. Using multi-level modeling (MLM), we found that listening condition differentially impacted reading fluency for all children. Children's reading fluency was more negatively impacted by the single talker in comparison to white noise and quiet. The performance of all children to retell story components (a measure of reading comprehension) was moderated by age with older children recalling more story components in the presence of white noise. Recalling story components correctly was not impacted by listening condition or disability. Regardless of disability, environments that include a single talker were not optimal for children's reading fluency skills. Moreover, preferred environments for children's reading comprehension skills--specifically the retelling of key story components--depend on student age, with background white noise being ideal for older children. Notably, no differences in how background noise impacts reading performance were found between autistic and NA children.

Smartphones are the principal instrument for internet access among adolescents and pre-adolescents in many industrialized countries. However, research on the long-term correlates of age at first access to these devices concerning life outcomes is scarce. This study contributes to the literature by collecting data from 3,247 Italian students in grade 10. Through OLS and logistic regressions, we investigate socio-demographics' role in predicting the age of first smartphone access and the associations between the age of access and selected life outcomes. The moderating effect of socio-demographics on such relationships is also investigated through multiple-interaction models. Results suggest that females and students from less-educated families are more likely to receive smartphones earlier. Early smartphone access is negatively associated with adolescents' well-functioning. Finally, deferring access reduces the gender gap in language proficiency, digital skills and life satisfaction.

The aim of this study was to assess the pattern of mutual relations within the Problematic Smartphone Use (PSU) (first network) and between adolescent mental health problems and PSU (second network). The invariance of both networks was investigated across age, gender, and severity of symptoms. The participants were 708 Romanian adolescents (M[subscript age] = 16). Analyses were performed in RStudio. The results indicated that the most central node in the PSU network was a preoccupation symptom. The strongest bridge path laid between a reckless symptom and PSU. The networks were invariant with respect to the gender of the adolescents but were different--both in structure and strength--between the adolescents with low vs. high total difficulties. Furthermore, the networks were significantly different in terms of structure between middle and late adolescents. These findings are further discussed.

Health literacy (HL) is an essential health determinant that could encourage the adoption of individual and community protective behaviours that contribute to public health. This study aims to analyse the associations between HL and medication HL (MHL) in 4015 adolescents from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC/WHO). Data were collected from the HBSC/WHO questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, bivariate analysis, and multinomial logistic regression were performed. 62.4% of participants have a moderate level of HL and 29.1% have a high level of HL. The youngest boys, and those who have a low level of MHL in the different dimensions presented (expiration date, recycling, side effects, illegal sale and safety), have a low level of HL. The oldest girls have a moderate level of HL. Also, girls with a high level of MHL, reported a high level of HL. MHL, namely, the expiration date, recycling, side effects and safety dimensions in adolescents is significantly related to and positively associated with HL. The results will enable us to highlight to family professionals and public policies the importance of HL and MHL promotion in adolescents.

In English teaching, developing students' reading habits has been emphasized for its critical role in promoting overall core competencies. However, in practice, many teachers and parents are not informed of the effective approaches to developing good English reading habits, hindering the overall development of students' core competencies. In light of this, an empirical study was carried out to explore the developmental features of students' English reading habits and individual, family and school factors that affect its development. A questionnaire was adopted to collect quantitative data. A total of 2,130 primary and secondary school students from China participated in the study. The results indicated that their English reading habits varied with age and gender. In terms of age, secondary school students, especially middle school students, performed better than primary school students. In terms of gender, females performed better in reading frequency, reading time and ways of reading, while males had a larger reading volume. Reading habits were found to be impacted by individual, school and family factors. Among them, age had the strongest influence on the development of English reading habits. These findings shed light on effective ways to develop English reading habits, especially in foreign-language-learning contexts.

Background: Recent research suggested fluent processing as an explanation on why number sense contributes to simple arithmetic tasks--'Fluency hypothesis'. Aims: The current study investigates whether number sense contributes to such arithmetic tasks when other cognitive factors are controlled for (including those that mediate the link); and whether this contribution varies as a function of participants' individual maths fluency levels. Sample: Four hundred and thirty-seven Chinese schoolchildren (186 females; Mage = 83.49 months) completed a range of cognitive measures in Grade 1 (no previous classroom training) and in Grade 2 (a year later). Methods: Number sense, arithmetic (addition and subtraction), spatial ability, visuo-spatial working memory, perception, reaction time, character reading and general intelligence were measured. Results: Our data showed that the link between number sense and arithmetic was weaker in Grade 1 (Beta = 0.15 for addition and 0.06 (ns) for subtraction) compared to Grade 2 (0.23--0.28), but still persisted in children with no previous maths training. Further, math's performance in Grade 1 did not affect the link between number sense and maths performance in Grade 2. Conclusion: Our data extended previous findings by showing that number sense is linked with simple maths task performance even after controlling for multiple cognitive factors. Our results brought some evidence that number sense-arithmetic link is somewhat sensitive to previous formal maths education. Further research is needed, as the differences in effects between grades were quite small, and arithmetic in Grade 1 did not moderate the link at question in Grade 2.

This research aims to reveal the subjective well-being levels of classroom teachers with the explanatory sequential design method of mixed method research. In the quantitative part of the study, the subjective well-being levels of the classroom teachers were analysed according to the variables of gender, age, region of employment, professional experience, educational status and grade level taught, and the qualitative part was designed with the phenomenology method and examined according to the sub-dimensions of school engagement and teaching efficacy. In the quantitative part of the study, there were 340 participants, and the Teacher Subjective Well-being Questionnaire was used, while in the qualitative part, 27 participants were included, and the subjective well-being level was examined according to the sub-dimensions of school engagement and teaching efficacy. While the subjective well-being levels of the participants did not differ significantly according to the variables of the region of employment, educational status and grade level taught, they differed significantly according to the variables of age and professional experience. In addition, the participants stated that the factors affecting school engagement were professional commitment, responsibility, working environment, being valued, being respected, belonging and conscience, respectively. The areas that positively affected their teaching efficacy were field and pedagogical knowledge, communication, technology and classroom management, respectively, and those that negatively affected their teaching efficacy were pedagogical knowledge, communication, classroom management and lesson planning.

This study aimed to understand how mindfulness meditation affects young people by examining its impact on self-regulation, happiness, emotional awareness, and school performance among two groups of school children. A 10-week mindfulness program was conducted by a meditation expert for 552 children aged 4-8 (Group 1) and 287 children aged 9-11 (Group 2). Results for the 4-8 years group (Group 1) showed meditation predicted an increase in happiness (R[superscript 2] = 0.003, p < 0.001) and self-reported school performance (R[superscript 2] = 0.005, p < 0.001) and a decrease in emotional (R[superscript 2] = 0.017, p < 0.001) and behavioral difficulties (R[superscript 2] = 0.009, p < 0.001); however, the effect sizes were small. In the 9-11 years group (Group 2), meditation predicted an increase in emotional awareness (R[superscript 2] = 0.02, p < 0.001), and a decrease in emotional (R[superscript 2] = 0.014, p < 0.001) and behavioral difficulties (R[superscript 2] = 0.009, p < 0.001) as measured by scores from baseline to postintervention. For Group 2, there was no significant change in happiness over the 10 weeks. The findings support incorporating mindfulness meditation in schools, noting significant enhancements in self-regulation with just 5 min of daily practice.

This paper discusses the results of a study of the relationships between teacher behaviour and the level of play engagement in two- and three-year-old children in Dutch childcare centres. We found that the continuous proximity of the teacher had the greatest impact on the level of play engagement, while the teacher's walking around and only brief contacts with the children had a negative impact. In line with earlier studies, two-sided and reciprocal interactions between teacher and children also yielded positive results for play engagement. Both our quantitative and qualitative analyses showed a strong co-variation of variables. When the teacher paid only brief visits, and peers also walked in and out, there was a greater likelihood of one-sided interactions, When the teacher was always nearby, we observed the opposite. Dutch teachers spend most of their time walking around. Their pedagogy seems to be based on a model of individual care and control and insensitiveness of group dynamic processes.

This paper reports a design and implementation of a STEM enrichment programme infused with affective elements designed for Hong Kong students. Specifically, it features a design-thinking approach to develop solutions to a self-selected problem addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Around 30 upper primary school (grades 5 to 6) and 20 lower secondary students (grades 7 to 10) enrolled in the study. Considering empathy as a core value of the design-thinking process and aligned with affective dimensions of thinking and learning, we investigate students' design-thinking development and STEM learning processes while highlighting empathy map as a pedagogical tool. We discuss the implications and insights of offering humanistic perspectives on STEM curricular design, especially for K-12 students. Our results showed that students at different age range were able to use empathy maps to devise designs effectively, despite their varying degrees of empathy. Furthermore, we conceptualize empathy maps as a pedagogical tool that creates physical boundaries in design thinking, making students' mental transitions across design stages more explicit. This study contributes to a better understanding of the educational potentials of design-thinking enhanced classrooms, with the results informing theoretical and practical advice on the integration of the empathy map in innovation-oriented projects.

Purpose: The present study evaluated the applicability of the sentence-focused framework to Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants (CIs) by examining the relative contribution of receptive/expressive noun and verb lexicon sizes to later grammatical complexity. Method: Participants were 51 Mandarin-speaking children who received cochlear implantation before 30 months of age. At 12 months after CI activation, parents were asked to endorse words that their child could understand only or understand and say using the infant version of the Early Vocabulary Inventory. At 24 months after CI activation, parents were asked to endorse the grammatical structures that their children were able to say using the Grammatical Complexity subtest in the Mandarin Communicative Development Inventory--Taiwan. Children's receptive/expressive noun and verb lexicon sizes and grammatical complexity scores were computed from these parent checklists. Results: Correlational analyses showed that children's receptive/expressive noun and verb lexicon sizes at 12 months after CI activation were all highly correlated with their grammatical complexity scores at 24 months after CI activation ([rho]s = 0.52-0.63, ps < 0.001). Regression analyses further revealed that verb lexicon sizes at 12 months after CI activation outweighed noun lexicon sizes in accounting for grammatical complexity at 24 months after CI activation. Conclusions: Our findings supported the prediction of the sentence-focused framework. Emphasizing the role of verbs in early intervention has the potential to enhance grammatical outcomes in Mandarin-speaking children with CIs.

Purpose: Gesture delay in autistic infants and toddlers has been widely reported. The developmental trajectory of gesture production during early childhood is understudied. Thus, little is known about the possible changes of gesture production over time. The present study aimed to document the development of gesture production in autistic children and examine whether child-based factors (chronological age and initial language skills) predicted gesture development. Method: A total of 33 Chinese-speaking autistic children (M[subscript age] = 56.39 months, SD = 8.54 months) played with their parents at four time points over a 9-month period. Their speech was transcribed, and their gestures were coded from parent-child interaction. Multilevel modeling analysis was used to investigate the development of gesture and its associated factors. Results: The total number of gestures produced by autistic children decreased over time. Among different factors, children's initial age significantly and negatively predicted children's gesture production, while initial language positively predicted children's gesture production. Conclusions: Gesture delay persists in preschool age. The decline in gesture production was associated with children's age and initial language ability. These findings shed light on the difficulties surrounding gesture use in autistic children.

Although stories for children often feature supernatural and fantastical events, children themselves often prefer realistic events when choosing what should happen in a story. In two experiments, we investigated whether 3- to 5-year-olds (total N = 240 from diverse backgrounds) might be more likely to include fantastical events in stories about familiar fantasy characters. In Experiment 1, children saw stories about fantasy or real-world characters (e.g., a mermaid or an ordinary woman) and judged whether they would achieve goals using fantastic or realistic methods. Children were more likely to choose fantastic methods for the fantasy characters, and this tendency was more common in older children. In Experiment 2, children were asked yes/no questions about whether characters could use fantastic, realistic, and unusual methods to achieve goals. Children more often affirmed fantastic methods for fantasy than real-world characters. These findings contrast with previous work suggesting children avoid including fantastic events in fiction and suggest that children use precedent and familiarity to decide what can happen in a story.

Sometime before their second birthday, many children have a period of rapid expressive vocabulary growth called the vocabulary spurt. Theories of the underlying mechanisms differ: Accumulator models emphasize the accumulation of experience with words over time to yield a spurtlike pattern, while cognitive models attribute the spurt to cognitive changes. To test these theories, English-French monolingual and bilingual children with different exposure to each language were studied. Dense, longitudinal data were analyzed from 45 infants aged 16-30 months, whose expressive vocabulary was measured on a total of 617 occasions in English and/or French. Single-language (English and/or French), concept (number of concepts lexicalized across both languages), and word (sum of both languages) vocabulary scores were computed. Infants' exposure to each language and their exposure balance were measured using a language exposure questionnaire. Logistic curves were fitted to each infant's data to estimate the timing (midpoint) and steepness (slope) of the vocabulary spurt in single-language, concept, and word vocabularies. Seventy-six percent of infants showed a spurt in at least one vocabulary type, and bilinguals were less likely to show one in their nondominant than their dominant language. For single-language vocabulary, infants with more exposure to a language had earlier spurts. For combined vocabularies (concept and word), monolinguals and unbalanced bilinguals had earlier and steeper spurts than balanced bilinguals. Results better support the predictions of accumulator models than cognitive theories and show that infants follow different vocabulary acquisition trajectories based on their language background.

This preregistered, longitudinal study examined how much adolescents value and integrate their parents' and peers' attitudes into their own attitudes from early to middle adolescence. Across three waves, participants (N = 172, 91 female, 11-16 years across three waves; 439 data points) decided whether to pay money to learn their parents' or peers' attitudes about externalizing behaviors. Multivariate growth models revealed that adolescents were consistently willing to pay money over time to learn their parents' and peers' attitudes. The value of learning peers'--but not parents'--attitudes predicted changes in personal attitudes during adolescence, and this did not change across age. Moreover, the effect of others' attitude value on social influence weakened from early to middle adolescence, such that early adolescents who highly valued learning the attitudes of others (i.e., paid more) tended to shift their own attitudes more toward those endorsing positive influence, regardless of the source. In contrast, early adolescents who valued learning others' attitudes less were less susceptible to positive social influence. Importantly, this effect went away in middle adolescence. Although adolescents are highly motivated to learn their parents' and peers' attitudes about externalizing behaviors, how much those attitudes inform their personal attitudes depends on the source of input and the age of adolescents.

The current study examined whether social competence and autistic traits are related to anxiety and depression in autistic and non-autistic children. Parents of 340 children aged 6 to 12 years old, including 186 autistic and 154 non-autistic children completed the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) to assess their child's autistic traits, the Multidimensional Social Competence Scale (MSCS) to assess their child's social competence, and the Behaviour Assessment Scale for Children 2 (BASC-2) to assess their child's internalizing symptoms of depression and anxiety, and children were administered the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, Second Edition (WASI-II) to assess their intellectual abilities. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to investigate the relations between social competence, autistic traits, anxiety, and depression. Social competence was related to anxiety and depression symptoms in autistic children, but only depression symptoms in non-autistic children, above and beyond the effects of autistic traits, IQ and age. Autistic children were also reported to experience more severe anxiety and depression symptoms, and more autistic traits were related to higher levels of anxiety and depression in both groups. These findings suggest that social competence and internalizing symptoms are intricately connected in autistic children and need to be jointly considered in both assessment and intervention. The social implications are discussed with an emphasis on acceptance of diverse social styles as a viable avenue to reduce children's internalizing symptoms.

Purpose: This research aimed to capture undergraduate students' experiences in the transition from face-to-face (F2F) learning to online learning. This study explored their perceptions regarding the effectiveness of online learning in their academic lives, challenges encountered and suggestions for enhancing online learning in the post-COVID-19 era. Design/methodology/approach: This study employed a concurrent mixed-methods research design and selected 118 undergraduate students using a multistage random sampling technique from four colleges in Assam. Standardized questionnaires and open-ended interview schedules were used. Findings: Undergraduate students reported a positive attitude and satisfaction with online learning, valuing its adaptability to their schedules, its role as a motivating factor for self-learning, its effect on making them more technically proficient and enhancing their communication skills to articulate their thoughts. However, the challenges identified by the students have the potential to overshadow the promises of online learning. This research provided more constructive suggestions under the themes of "content delivery", "systemic and infrastructural issues", "pedagogy" and "capacity building" to enhance their experiences with online learning. Practical implications: Our research findings would assist educational institutions in adopting innovative approaches for simpler and more efficient online learning experiences post-COVID-19 pandemic. Institutions should prepare themselves and design dual-mode courses for F2F and online learning. Originality/value: The paper addressed a relevant topic in this era of online learning by examining undergraduate students' viewpoints that added complementary information to the current body of literature on online learning in rural India. The insights gleaned from their experiences would be beneficial for the development of best practices for online learning in the coming decades.

This study delves into the syntactic parsing abilities of children and infants exposed to Catalan as their first language. Focusing first on ages 3 to 6, we conducted two sentence-picture matching tasks. In experiment 1, 3 to 4-year-old children failed in identifying singular third-person subjects within null-subject sentences, although they performed above chance in all other scenarios, including plural third-person subjects and sentences with overt full DP subjects. This is reminiscent of the results of Pérez-Leroux for Spanish. In experiment 2, with the same design but involving numeral distractors, children's performance was above chance level across all conditions from age 3 to 4. Then, in experiment 3, we moved to a younger age range with the help of eye-tracking techniques. The findings revealed that infants at 22 months had the ability to parse subject--verb agreement in sentences with third-person null subjects, and at 19 months there was evidence of parsing for third-person plural null subjects. These findings are inconsistent with the perception of children grappling with syntactic agreement computation. We argue that instances of underperformance in subject--verb agreement parsing identified in the literature often stem from task-related and pragmatic issues rather than core syntactic delay. If so, the putative asymmetry between early production of verbal inflection and late comprehension disappears; rather, the results suggest early establishment of matching operations and mastery of language-specific agreement properties before production starts.

Objective: Our study examined the impact of sex, ADHD subtype, and comorbid illnesses (depression/anxiety) on the timing of diagnosis and treatment for ADHD. Method: To analyze ADHD patients, four health databases were used to assess subtype, comorbid mood, and antidepressant or anxiolytic drug exposure. Analyses were stratified by sex and age. Standardized mean differences measured intergroup differences. Results: Females with ADHD were identified at older ages and had higher rates of depression and anxiety diagnoses and treatments before and after their initial ADHD diagnosis. Predominantly inattentive ADHD patients were diagnosed later and more likely to receive mood disorder diagnosis and treatment than hyperactive impulsive ADHD patients. Conclusions: Results suggest a more complex ADHD presentation in females, potentially causing late diagnosis and delayed treatment.

This study examined the relationships between word reading and rapid automatized naming (RAN) for objects and letters in Arabic-speaking children with and without dyslexia to determine potential modulating effects of color on naming by comparing children's performance on color and black-white RAN plates. Participants were 114 Arabic-speaking third graders who were tested for word and pseudoword reading accuracy, word reading fluency, rapid automatic naming, and letter scanning and searching abilities. Comparative analyses showed that while children with dyslexia did not differ from controls on the RAN object color task, they did show slower average naming speeds than the controls on the black-white version of the objects task. Similarly, the children with dyslexia showed slower average naming speeds than controls on both the color and black-white versions of the RAN letters task. In addition, hierarchical regression analyses showed that word reading accuracy, word reading fluency and pseudoword reading were significantly predicted by RAN black-white objects and RAN letters both versions after controlling for Age, IQ and visual search. Furthermore, group predicted the interference in letter RAN but not in object RAN. Findings of the current study have implications for the positive impact of color on object-naming tasks.

Introduction: Social self-efficacy refers to peoples' beliefs about their ability to establish effective social relationships. During adolescence, it has been related to positive social relationships, skills to cope with adverse experiences, and health. While prior research has focused on the general dimension of self-efficacy, this study aims to examine the reliability and validity of the subscale social self-efficacy in Spanish and Portuguese adolescents across gender, age, and country. Method: The sample, selected from the 2018 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study, was composed of 20,691 13-18-year-old adolescents from Spain and Portugal (48.2% boys and 51.8% girls). The scale's reliability and internal and external validity were examined systemically across sex, age, and country, as well as testing measurement invariance according to these variables. Results: Data showed adequate evidence of reliability ([alpha] = 0.85), as well as internal and external validity, thus demonstrating the scale's stability and applicability in similar research contexts. Conclusions: Social self-efficacy fosters individual and social well-being in youth, as well as healthy and positive development. Use of this subscale in evaluation and intervention programs could further our understanding about different dimensions of adolescent development.

Although vaccine behaviors differ greatly by gender and age, few studies have examined vaccination at the intersection of gender and age within the Black community. We examined COVID-19 vaccination by gender and age using a survey of over 500 Black adults in Chicago, Illinois, fielded from September 2021 to March 2022. Although 54% had received at least one COVID-19 vaccine, the proportion vaccinated was considerably lower for Black men (28%) and women (37%) under 40 years old than Black men (92%) and women (86%) over 40 years (p < 0.001). Concern about vaccine side effects was the most reported barrier for unvaccinated women (56%) and men (38%) under 40 years. Our results suggest that targeted efforts to improve COVID-19 vaccine uptake in the Black community in Chicago after the initial rollout should have focused on young adults, particularly young Black men, with emphasis on addressing concern about vaccine side effects.

Although physical activity (PA) has a profound impact on health, many college and university students are still physically inactive. There is some evidence to suggest that social support (SS) could impact the PA levels of students, but the internal relationship and specific effects are not very clear. The purpose of this review was to determine the strength of the relationship between SS and PA and examine whether any potential associations differed in terms of age, gender, and region among college and university students. Studies were identified using the following electronic databases: PubMed, SPORTDiscus, Web of Science, and Sociological Abstracts. Moderator analyses investigating the effects of students' age, gender, and region (nation) were performed. This review included 19 articles. The results showed total SS was significantly associated with PA (r = 0.30, 95% confidence interval [CI]: [0.22, 0.37], p < 0.001). With respect to different types of support, friend support was more strongly associated with PA than family support. Gender factors had a significant moderating effect on the correlation between SS and PA (QM = 17.433, p < 0.001). Separate analyses examining the moderating effects of gender (percentage of females) found that the association between SS and PA was stronger with the increase in female percentage. In conclusion, SS is an important factor associated with PA levels and should foster SS within intervention programs according to types of SS and gender differences to increase PA levels among college and university students.

This quantitative survey-based study examines 366 Czech and 532 Turkish preschool teachers' compassion levels and psychological well-being. The Adult Compassion Scale and Psychological Well-being Scale were used as the data-collection tools, and Mann-Whitney U testing and Kruskal Wallis-H testing were used for data analysis. Although Turkish preschool teachers' compassion levels were found to be higher than Czech participants, the Turkish preschool teachers' psychological well-being was lower. While participants' compassion did not differ significantly across gender, parent/non-parent status, or the presence/absence of children with special needs in their classrooms, significant differences were associated with age, seniority, personal education level, marital status, age group of children taught, class size, and faith. While psychological well-being did not differ significantly across presence/absence of special-needs children, seniority, personal education level, age group of children taught, or faith, there were significant differences across gender, age, parenthood, marital status and class size. There was also a positive and moderately significant relationship between the preschool teachers' compassion and their psychological well-being.

Purpose: This study aims at investigating the phonological development of the six guttural consonants of Jordanian Arabic, /[chi]/, /[voiced uvular fricative]/, /[voiceless pharyngeal fricative]/, /[voiced pharyngeal fricative]/, /[glottal stop]/, and /h/. Method: An articulation test is designed to involve two tasks: picture naming and repetition. The test includes 54 words for picture naming and 18 words for repetition, representing all possible positions of the targeted guttural sounds. Samples are collected from 40 typically developing Ammani-Jordanian Arabic-speaking monolingual children, living in Amman, Jordan. Respondents are equally divided into eight age-related trajectories: 2-2;6, 2;6-3, 3-3;6, 3;6-4, 4-4;6, 4;6-5, 5-5;6, and 5;6-6 (years;months). No child with a history of hearing, speech, or vision disorders is included. The data are analyzed using "production accuracy," where the three developmental trajectories of production (customary, acquisition, and mastery) are determined for each guttural, and "error analysis," addressed based on perceptual judgments, providing details of every mispronounced or deleted guttural. Results: The results show that /[chi]/, /[voiceless pharyngeal fricative]/, /[voiced pharyngeal fricative]/, and /[glottal stop]/ are acquired before the age of 6 years, while /[voiced uvular fricative]/ and /h/ are still not acquired by this age. Respondents use relatively variant alternatives for the mispronounced cognates, including guttural, nonguttural sounds, and vowel substitution. The /[voiced uvular fricative]/ is the guttural with the highest number of alternatives, while /[glottal stop]/ gets the least. The analysis also reveals patterns of guttural deletion, with variations across different guttural sounds and positions. Despite errors/deviations made, respondents score accuracy percentages that gradually increase in correlation with age. The guttural /[voiced uvular fricative]/ starts with the lowest accuracy percentages, while /[glottal stop]/ and /[voiceless pharyngeal fricative]/ start with the highest. Conclusions: These findings illuminate on the developmental trajectory of guttural acquisition and enrich our understanding of children's evolving perception and production abilities. They offer valuable insights into the patterns of guttural sound production in Jordanian Arabic-speaking children, laying the groundwork for further research and the development of targeted assessment and intervention strategies to support phonological development in this population.

Few studies on the development of forgiveness involved young children and adolescents, and very few involved samples from non-western countries. This study focused on the development of willingness to forgive a particular transgression in participants aged 4 to 12 years and from two different cultures: a South African culture (Mozambique) and a Western European culture (France). Overall, 153 pupils from Mozambique and 107 pupils from France were presented with eight vignettes depicting a situation where a young child, intentionally or accidentally, dropped a small radio that they borrowed from another young child. These vignettes were composed by applying an orthogonal Intent × Consequences × Apologies, 2 × 2 × 2, design. Participants expressed what their willingness to forgive would be in each case on a continuous response scale. Through cluster analysis, four main positions were identified. They were labeled: "Almost never forgive" (11% of participants), "Depends mainly on consequences" (22%), "Depends mainly on intent and apologies" (57%), and "Almost always forgive" (2%). The first two positions were typical of 4-7-year olds, and the third one was typical of 8-12-year olds. No significant differences in cluster composition were found between the Mozambican and French participants. Up to the age of four, most children probably do not have access to the notion of forgiveness. From the age of four to seven, this notion begins to appear, in particular through a gradual taking into account of circumstantial factors other than the severity of consequences of a transgression. This development is quite rapid - probably during the 7-year period, from 0 to 7 years. From the age of eight onwards, a forgiveness schema similar to that observed in adults is operational. This developmental trajectory is probably very general. It seems to depend little on the type of culture in which it develops.

The current study examined to what extent face and speech processing interact with each other and whether they enhance or impair the processing of the other in 5-year-olds (n = 51) and adults (n = 34). Using a computer-based speeded sorting task allowed to directly test the influence of auditory speech on face processing and the influence of face identity on auditory speech processing within one experiment. Participants were asked to either sort faces while ignoring auditory speech information (face task) or to sort auditory speech while ignoring face information (speech task). The tasks comprised three conditions: control (irrelevant dimension constant), correlational (congruent pairing of relevant and irrelevant dimension), and orthogonal (random pairing). For the 5-year-olds, reaction times did not differ in the face task, but differed in the speech task. They were the fastest in the control and the slowest in the orthogonal compared with the constant conditions. Adults' reaction times were similar across conditions and tasks indicating an independent processing of faces and speech. Hence, we found an asymmetrical processing pattern between face and auditory speech processing in children, in which face identity is processed independent of auditory speech; however, auditory speech processing is affected by face identity.

This article reports on two experiments that examine the computation of contrastive focus in Russian on the part of adult English-dominant heritage speakers and second language learners of Russian, in comparison with baseline monolinguals. The first experiment uses an acceptability judgment task to determine whether bilingual and monolingual speakers use both contextual and prosodic cues to determine the location of contrastive focus. A follow-up experiment uses two prominence detection tasks in order to separately examine participants' sensitivity to contextual vs. prosodic cues. The findings indicate that, at higher proficiency, bilingual speakers of Russian successfully use both contextual and prosodic cues to contrastive focus; with proficiency controlled for, heritage speakers do not have an advantage over second language learners in this domain. These findings are discussed in light of cross-linguistic influence and interface vulnerability.

Purpose: Production of complex syntax is a hallmark of later language development; however, most of the research examining age-related changes has focused on adolescents or analyzed narrative language samples. Research documenting age-related changes in the production of complex syntax in elementary school-aged children in conversational language samples is limited. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to examine age-related changes in the production of coordinate and subordinate clauses in children between 5 and 10 years of age obtained from 50-utterance conversational language samples. Method: The analytic sample included 196 children with typical language development, who ranged in age from 5;0 to 10;11 (years;months; girls = 103; boys = 96; three cases were excluded). Fifty-utterance conversational language samples were examined for use of coordinate and subordinate clauses. Results: Results of regression analyses indicated that the production of coordinate and subordinate clauses could be predicted from age. The proportion of utterances that included subordinate clauses increased 0.20% for every month increase in age (p < 0.001). Coordinate clauses also continued to grow, although at a slower rate (0.10% increase for every month increase in age, p < 0.001). Finally, the proportion of simple utterances (i.e., utterances without coordinate or subordinate clauses) decreased with age (0.40% decrease for every month increase in age, p < 0.001). Conclusions: This study indicated that as children's age increased, they used fewer, simple, one-clause sentences and more utterances that included subordinate clauses, with or without coordinate clauses. These results were obtained from 50-utterance language samples, further supporting use of language sampling to develop intervention goals and monitor progress in therapy.

Access to traditional education is expensive and has limitations related to geographical locations. The internet development has enabled the use of alternative tools for providing teaching and learning services referred to as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Despite the advantages of using MOOCs in Higher Learning Institutions (HLIs), there is a paucity of studies related to the adoption of MOOCs in developing countries. Furthermore, the self-regulation aspect, an important factor in an uncontrolled learning environment has received less attention in the literature. Nevertheless, available studies on the adoption of MOOCs have not paid attention to the issue of the age difference, which is important in adopting innovative technology. Therefore, to address the gap this study extended the Technology-User-Environment (TUE) framework by examining mediating and moderating effects of self-regulation and age respectively on the adoption of the MOOCs in Tanzania. The study employed purposive sampling to collect a total of 351 which were analyzed using SmartPLS 4.0. Findings show that observability, perceived usefulness, peer pressure, self-regulation and self-efficacy have significant effects on the adoption of MOOCs. Furthermore, findings show that age moderates the relationship between peer pressure and MOOCs adoption behaviour. Also, Self-regulation was found to mediate the relationship between perceived usefulness, personal readiness, observability and MOOCs adoption. The study provides recommendations to enhance the adoption of MOOCs in Tanzania's higher education sector.

This study explored the nature, prevalence, and developmental profiles of sensory processing disorders among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The participants comprised 119 children with ASD and 30 typically developing children and their parents. The Child Sensory Profile-2 was used to assess the children's sensory processing characteristics. The children with ASD exhibited elevated sensory processing difficulties. Deficits were observed in all the sensory modalities among the children with ASD, except the visual processing modality. Age-related improvements were observed in most sensory processing domains, although non-significant differences were noted in three domains. These findings should enhance understanding of the sensory challenges faced by children with ASD and contribute to the development of individually tailored, targeted, and age-specific therapeutic interventions.

The purpose of this study was to explore female and feminine-presenting band directors' experiences with gender microaggressions in their work. Data consisted of survey responses (N = 974) from current, former, and aspiring band directors living and/or teaching in the United States. The most frequently experienced types of gender microaggressions were second-class citizenship, restrictive gender roles, and environmental microaggressions. Younger individuals, college instructors, and those in the South tended to experience certain microaggression types more frequently than did other directors. Open-ended descriptions indicated a variety of common experiences within each of the nine types of gender microaggression, the most frequent of which was being called a demeaning name (e.g., sweetie, honey, and young lady). The most stressful/bothersome types were second-class citizenship, assumptions of inferiority, and restrictive gender roles, and correlations between frequency and stressfulness were strongest for leaving gender at the door, denial of individual sexism, and denial of the reality of sexism. Implications include the need to develop awareness of, combat, and prevent gender microaggressions in the secondary band profession and to provide opportunities for teachers of all genders to be recognized and valued for their work.

Recent evidence suggests that deaf children with CIs exposed to nonnative sign language from hearing parents can attain age-appropriate vocabularies in both sign and spoken language. It remains to be explored whether deaf children with CIs who are exposed to early nonnative sign language, but only up to implantation, also benefit from this input and whether these benefits also extend to memory abilities, which are strongly linked to language development. The present study examined the impact of deaf children's early short-term exposure to nonnative sign input on their spoken language and their phonological memory abilities. Deaf children who had been exposed to nonnative sign input before and after cochlear implantation were compared to deaf children who never had any exposure to sign input as well as to children with typical hearing. The children were between 5;1 and 7;1 years of age at the time of testing and were matched on age, sex, and socioeconomic status. The results suggest that even short-term exposure to nonnative sign input has positive effects on general language and phonological memory abilities as well as on nonverbal working memory--with total length of exposure to sign input being the best predictor of deaf children's performance on these measures. The present data suggest that even access to early short-term nonnative visual language input is beneficial for the language and phonological memory abilities of deaf children with cochlear implants, suggesting also that parents should not be discouraged from learning and exposing their child to sign language.

This study explores potential disparities between flight instructor evaluations and pilot self-assessments in the context of full flight simulator training. Evaluated performance was based on the Competency-based Training and Assessment framework, a recent development of competency-based education within aviation. Self-assessed performance is derived from survey responses and debriefing interviews. The simulator session involves eight multi-crew pilot training graduates and eight experienced flight captains, encompassing two tasks featuring sudden technical malfunctions during flight. The flight instructor's evaluations reveal no significant differences in pilot performance. However, disparities become apparent when pilots engaged in reflecting their performance. Novice pilots, despite perceiving both tasks as easy, exhibited an overconfidence that led them to underestimate the inherent risks. Conversely, experienced pilots demonstrated greater caution towards the risks and engaged in discussing possible hazards. Furthermore, this study highlights the challenge of designing flight simulator training that incorporates surprise elements. Pilots tend to anticipate anomalies more readily in simulator training than during actual flights. Thus, this study underscores the importance of examining how pilots reflect on their performance, complementing the assessment of observable indicators and predefined competencies.

Being looked at is an important communicative signal, and attenuated responses to such direct gaze have been suggested as an early sign of autism. Using live eye tracking, we examined whether direct gaze elicits different gaze responses in infants at ages 10, 14 and 18 months with and without later autism in real-life interaction. The sample consisted of 169 infants: 35 with elevated likelihood of autism and subsequent diagnosis, 94 without subsequent diagnosis and 40 with typical likelihood of autism. Infants in all groups tended to look more towards the adult's face shortly after the direct gaze occurred. Neither how much nor how quickly the infants responded to the direct gaze differentiated the without elevated likelihood of autism and subsequent diagnosis and with elevated likelihood of autism and subsequent diagnosis groups. Infants in the typical likelihood group looked more at the face after the direct-gaze event than infants in the two elevated likelihood groups, but this result is tentative. In an exploratory analysis, infants in the elevated likelihood of autism and subsequent diagnosis group looked away quicker from faces with direct gaze than infants in the typical likelihood group, but this measure did not correlate with dimensional autism or differentiate between the two elevated likelihood groups. The current results suggest that attenuated behavioural responses to direct gaze in infancy are neither strong nor specific early markers of autism.