Angela Scarpa's research while affiliated with Virginia Tech (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University) and other places

Publications (122)

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Social impairments characteristic of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are evident in early childhood and often worsen. Research indicates including caregivers in social skills groups may increase generalization for child outcomes, while also benefiting caregivers by increasing their self-confidence in ability to coach their child. Further, there may...
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PEERS® for Preschoolers (P4P) is a social skills group program for young autistic children and their caregivers, which provides everyday tools for interacting and communicating with others. Twenty-two caregiver-child dyads participated and completed pre-treatment, post-treatment, and follow-up measures (4–16 weeks after). Using single-subject analy...
Article
Although augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) strategies are often used by autistic youth, little is known about the use of AAC in inpatient psychiatric settings. This study evaluated how demographic and clinical factors (e.g., language level, IQ) related to AAC use in a well-characterized sample of 527 autistic youth (78.7% male, mean...
Article
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Social impairments characteristic of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are evident in early childhood and often worsen. There is a paucity of evidence-based interventions explicitly targeting social skill development for young children with ASD and few actively integrate caregivers. The PEERS® program, an evidence-based caregiver-assisted social skill...
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Background Social impairments characteristic of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are evident in early childhood and worsen as the child matures. Though many interventions for young children exist, few specifically target social skills and involve caregivers. Aims This pilot study examined PEERS® for Preschoolers, focusing on temporal change in child...
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Driving is central to adult independence and autonomy; yet most autistic young adults do not acquire driver’s licenses. It is important to understand barriers to achieving this milestone for autistic adults. Differences in negative affect and emotion dysregulation associated with autism may interfere with managing difficult driving situations. The...
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Flexibility is often associated with resilience from adversity. Youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at risk of stress and trauma yet have inherent difficulties with flexibility, including rigid behaviors, routines, “insistence on sameness,” and lack of social reciprocity. This review highlights literature of physiological and psychologica...
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Parent-mediated interventions are increasingly described in the current literature, and although parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) face many challenges in regards to behavioral concerns, there are few parent-mediated interventions that target behavioral problems. There are even fewer that are evaluated for use in rural communi...
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Many providers from rural communities feel ill-prepared to treat children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Cost-effective training in Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT), an evidence-based ASD treatment, can address un-met needs for rural communities. The current study examined a 1-day general PRT workshop for parents and professionals followed by...
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Background Screening and diagnostic assessments tools for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are important to administer during childhood to facilitate timely entry into intervention services that can promote developmental outcomes across the lifespan. However, assessment services are not always readily available to families, as they require significan...
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This study aimed to investigate differences between emotion regulation (ER), emotionality, and expression of emotions in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and their typically developing (TD) peers; and to examine the potential links between these areas of development with social skills in both groups, as well as with behavioral, emotiona...
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BACKGROUND: Understanding factors that impact the successful employment of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is critical to improving outcomes, including quality of life. Despite employers being critical contributors to the hiring process, the perspectives of these stakeholders have yet to be examined in the literature. OBJECTIVE: To...
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Restricted and repetitive behaviors and interests (RRBI) have garnered attention for their presenting sex differences in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Specifically, previous works have claimed that RRBI are less predictive of an ASD diagnosis for females relative to males. Previous reports have demonstrated mixed findings: females present with gr...
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Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) impacts an individual’s developmental trajectory across several domains, supporting the importance of early detection and identification, which is ultimately the first step toward treatment planning. Children should be exposed to an ASD screening at 18 and 24 months of age, but such services are not always available a...
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Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) impacts an individual’s developmental trajectory across several domains, supporting the importance of early detection and identification, which is ultimately the first step toward treatment planning. Children should be exposed to an ASD screening at 18 and 24 months of age, but such services are not always available a...
Chapter
Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate deficits in social communication and the presence of restrictive or repetitive behaviors or interests that result in functional impairment. This chapter describes an evidence-based assessment approach to guide identification of intervention targets and treatment approaches. Psychological i...
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Objective: Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (SCT), characterized by lethargy and daydreaming, has most commonly been studied in community samples and in youth with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Despite shared neurodevelopmental symptoms with ADHD, few studies have investigated SCT in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The current study inv...
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Background: Low-resource rural communities face significant challenges regarding availability and adequacy of evidence-based services. Purposes: With respect to accessing evidence-based services for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), this brief report summarizes needs of rural citizens in the South-Central Appalachian region, an area notable for pers...
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A number of intervention models aimed at addressing Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)-related behaviors require caregivers to perform intensive and oftentimes extended protocols (Bearss et al. in Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev 18(2):170–182, 2015). Though a number of research findings describe how characteristics of the child with ASD affect the mental he...
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Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is proposed to index cognitive and behavioral inflexibility. Broad autism phenotype (BAP) traits are prevalent in family members of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The study investigated whether RSA and BAP traits in mothers of typically developing (TD) children and mothers of children with ASD influ...
Article
Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) experience depression and anxiety at higher rates than typically developing (TD) youth. The current study examined how restricted and repetitive behaviors or interests (RRBs) may be related to symptoms of depression and anxiety. Participants included 35 children with ASD (29 male, 6 female) between 3 and 14...
Chapter
Psychological disorders commonly co-occur in individuals with developmental disabilities, yet mental health disorders are under-identified and mental health services are underutilized for this group. Within the larger population of individuals with developmental disabilities, this chapter focuses on individuals with intellectual disability (ID) and...
Chapter
Providing psychotherapy services to the underserved is a significant problem with far-reaching consequences. This book brings together discussions of multiple groups of underserved persons, some of whom are generally neglected by much of the literature. This book is designed to help mental health professionals who provide psychotherapy to increase...
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Young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) struggle with emotion regulation (ER), which is developmentally preceded by lability/negative affect (L/N), and their parents face unique challenges to parenting and providing assistance. The Stress and Anger Management Program (STAMP) is a cognitive-behavioral treatment designed to address ER defi...
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The neurovisceral integration model posits that cognitive-behavioral inflexibility arises from biological inflexibility of feedback loops within the central autonomic network. The parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) is integral in this network. Activity of the PNS, which is normally tonically inhibited, can be indexed through respiratory sinus arr...
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Background: As autistic college students increase in number, it is important to identify how to best support them. Beyond the increased academic demands of higher education, many autistic young adults struggle with social interactions, time management, emotion regulation, and routine changes. Having an accurate understanding of Graduate Teaching A...
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Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)may exhibit chronic autonomic nervous system (ANS)hyperarousal (e.g., lower respiratory sinus arrhythmia and higher heart rate)compared to their typically developing peers, reflecting a chronic biological threat response. The sustained nature of this cardiac threat suggests tonic nervous system percept...
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Objective: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) screening can improve prognosis via early diagnosis and intervention, but lack of time and training can deter pediatric screening. The Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers, Revised (M-CHAT-R) is a widely used screener but requires follow-up questions and error-prone human scoring and interpretation. W...
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Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by difficulty in dynamically adjusting behavior to interact effectively with others, or social reciprocity. Synchronization of physiological responses between interacting partners, or physiological linkage (PL), is thought to provide a foundation for social reciprocity....
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Broader autism phenotype (BAP) characteristics (pragmatic language deficits, aloofness, and rigidity) are prevalent in families of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and may influence emotion-related behaviors. The current study analyzed associations among BAP characteristics with emotion-related behaviors in mothers of children with a...
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Many children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit difficulties with negative affect. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has been successfully adapted for individuals with ASD to treat these difficulties. In a wait-list control study, for example, group analyses showed promising results for young children with ASD using a developmentally ad...
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Previous work has found gender differences in restricted and repetitive behaviors and interests (RRBI) for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Compared to girls, affected boys have increased stereotyped and restricted behaviors; however much less is known about gender differences in other areas of RRBI. This study aims to identify whether specific RRBI...
Article
Previous research found repetitive and restricted behaviors (RRBs) were less predictive of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in females, indicating the diagnostic construct may not adequately describe RRB presentations in females. This mixed-methods study investigated the female presentation of RRBs, namely restricted interests, in a clinic sample of...
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There is growing evidence of a camouflaging effect among females with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), particularly among those without intellectual disability, which may affect performance on gold-standard diagnostic measures. This study utilized an age- and IQ-matched sample of school-aged youth (n = 228) diagnosed with ASD to assess sex differenc...
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Child maltreatment can have a lasting impact, which is why it is important to understand factors that may exacerbate or mitigate self-esteem difficulties in adulthood. Although there is tremendous benefit that can come from religion and spirituality, few studies examine religious views after child maltreatment. Subsequent interpersonal difficulties...
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Caregivers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) report greater stress due to unique parenting demands (e.g.; Estes et al. in Brain Dev 35(2):133–138, 2013). Stress is often studied through self-report and has not been extensively studied using physiological measures. This study compared parenting stress in mothers of children with and wi...
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In addition to social communication deficits, restricted repetitive behaviors (RRBs) are a key diagnostic feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) in ASD has been posited as a mechanism of RRBs; however, most studies investigating ANS activity in ASD have focused on its relation to social function...
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It is well documented in the sexual assault literature that more than half of rape survivors do not label their experience as rape. This is called unacknowledged rape. Although this phenomenon is common and undoubtedly has huge implications for psychotherapy, the impact of acknowledgment status on psychological adjustment is unclear. The present st...
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Physiological linkage (PL) refers to coordinated physiological responses among interacting partners (Feldman, 2012a), thought to offer mammals evolutionary advantages by promoting survival through social groups. Although PL has been observed in dyads who are familiar or have close relationships (e.g., parent-infant interactions, romantic couples),...
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Rural communities face significant challenges regarding the adequate availability of diagnostic-, treatment-, and support-services for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Specifically, a variety of factors, including geographic distance between families and service providers, low reliance on health care professionals, and cultural char...
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Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience internalizing and externalizing problems at higher rates than typically developing children, which could worsen social impairment. The present study compared impairment scores (social responsiveness scale, 2nd edition; SRS-2 scores) in 57 children (3–17 years, 82.5% male) with ASD, either with...
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Objective: Although the majority of rape survivors do not label their experiences as rape (i.e., unacknowledged rape), the literature is mixed in terms of how this affects survivors' psychological functioning. To elucidate the discrepancies, the present study examined the interaction between rape acknowledgement and ambivalent sexism in relation t...
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The trauma literature strongly points to the role of cognitive mechanisms, particularly maladaptive beliefs, in posttrauma functioning. The present pilot study considered whether sexist attitudes are related to postrape psychopathology among college men. A sample of 16 male college students who reported being survivors of rape completed measures of...
Article
While the function of restricted repetitive behaviors (RRBs) in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is unclear, RRBs may function as anxiety reduction strategies (Joosten et al. J Autism Dev Disord 39(3):521-531, 2009. Moreover, anxiety in ASD is associated with low social motivation (Swain et al. J Autism Dev Disord, 2015. The present study examined so...
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Evidence supports that the majority of young women who experience sexual victimization that meets the legal definition of rape do not label their experiences as rape—this has been termed unacknowledged rape. In a sample of 77 young adult women, the odds of unacknowledged rape significantly increased as a function of less severe child sexual abuse h...
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The goal of this study was to test depressive symptoms as a mediator between social difficulties and hostility in young adults. Hostility is often a reaction to both intrinsic and extrinsic factors; therefore a greater understanding of contributing factors is needed, especially among emerging adults. College students (n = 608; 408 females, 200 male...
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Arousal and its regulation are key components of emotion, temperament, and flexible responding needed for healthy adjustment. This article presents a biosocial vulnerability model suggesting that maladjustment arises when psychological mechanisms are disrupted by changes in nervous system functioning that cause the discoordination of physiological...
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Young adults with ASD and no intellectual impairment are more likely to exhibit clinical levels of anxiety than typically developing peers (DSM-5, American Psychiatric Association, 2013). This study tests a mechanistic model in which anxiety culminates via emotion dysregulation and social motivation. Adults with ASD (49 males, 20 females) completed...
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Adult survivors of childhood maltreatment can be resilient when they have adequate psychosocial resources to cope with maltreatment-related sequelae; however, interpersonal problems may influence the effectiveness of such resources. This study used a schema activation experimental paradigm to test the benefit of social support cognitions on emotion...
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This study examined the influence of interpersonal functioning as a mediator in the relationship between child sexual abuse and depression symptoms, after accounting for the influence of child physical abuse. The research questions build on the existing knowledge base by examining mechanisms of adult adjustment among child sexual abuse survivors. I...
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Replicating the group-based developmental trajectory method-ology from our prior study (Patriquin, Lorenzi, Scarpa, & Bell. 2014. Developmental Psychobiology, 56, 317-326), the current study examines the development of baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) across a new, larger cohort of typically developing children at 5, 10, 24, 36, and 48 m...
Article
The current study investigated whether a history of child abuse is a predictor of adult immune status, with unwanted adult sexual experiences as a proximal mediator. Participants included 89 young adult women (Mage = 19.24) who were classified as having experienced no child abuse, child physical abuse, or child sexual abuse, based upon self-reporte...
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Disinhibition was examined as a mechanism in revictimization using a prospective research design. Of the sample of 211 young adult women, 43.1% reported prior sexual victimization (birth to the time of our initial assessment) and 32.2% reported sexual assault during the 6-month follow-up. The findings suggest that disinhibition was a partial mediat...
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Abuse characteristics and perceived social support are well documented factors that affect abuse survivor outcomes, but the interaction between abuse type (i.e., child sexual abuse, child physical abuse) and social support (i.e., friend, family, and significant other support) is less understood. The current sample included 265 female survivors of c...
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The current study examined depression and physiological reactivity to a sexual threat task as longitudinal predictors of sexual revictimization in women with sexual victimization histories. The sample included 14 young adult women (M age = 19.15) who reported child sexual abuse. Heart rate and root mean square of the successive differences were mea...
Conference Paper
Background: The Broader Autism Phenotype (BAP) is characterized behaviorally by subclinical symptoms and personality traits associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). BAP characteristics include aloofness, rigidity, and pragmatic language difficulties (Piven et al., 1997; Landa et al., 1992). Historically, BAP characteristics have been studied...
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The present longitudinal study examined relations between respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) development and social responsiveness characteristics associated with autism spectrum disorders. Group-based developmental trajectory modeling was used to characterize RSA development patterns in 106 typically developing children across 5, 10, 24, 36, and 4...
Article
The number of individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) diagnoses is increasing rapidly, indicating a need for multi-faceted interventions. The addition of a parent training component to cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has been effectively used to treat a variety of psychological disorders in children to support generalization of skills a...
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Despite the impact of social disability on the lives of people with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs), we know little about how to assess clinical improvement in this domain. This is a preliminary study of the potential utility and sensitivity of a novel observational rating system, the Contextual Assessment of Social Skills (CASS), as a treatment o...
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Low resting heart rate is a well-replicated biological correlate of aggression, and sensation seeking is frequently cited as the underlying causal explanation. However, little empirical evidence supports this mediating relationship. Furthermore, the biosocial model of violence and social push theory suggest sensation seeking may moderate the relati...
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The present study examines the relationship between autonomic activity and cognitive/language delays in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Baseline levels of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and heart period (HP) were assessed in 23 4-7-year old children diagnosed with ASD. The relationship between RSA, HP, and ASD behavioral symptoms...
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Although substantial literature discusses sensation seeking as playing a role in the relationship between baseline heart rate and aggression, few published studies have tested the relationships among these variables. Furthermore, most prior studies have focused on risk factors of aggression in men and have largely ignored this issue in women. Two s...
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Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with amplified emotional responses and poor emotional control, but little is known about the underlying mechanisms. This article provides a conceptual and methodologic framework for understanding compromised emotion regulation (ER) in ASD. After defining ER and related constructs, methods to study ER wer...
Article
The current study builds on the emerging autism spectrum disorder (ASD) literature that associates autonomic nervous system activity with social function, and examines the link between respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and both social behavior and cognitive function. The RSA response pattern was assessed in 23 4- to 7-year-old children diagnosed w...
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This study investigated the psychometric properties of the modified checklist for autism in toddlers (M-CHAT) in a diverse rural American low-socioeconomic status (SES) sample. Four hundred and forty-seven English (n = 335) and Spanish (n = 112) speaking caregivers completed the M-CHAT during their toddler's 18- or 24-month well visit in a Southwes...
Article
Prior research shows discrepant findings in relation to psychophysiological reactivity to threat in women with histories of sexual victimization. Women ages 18 to 22 (N=123) with histories of sexual abuse were categorized into child sexual abuse (CSA), adult sexual victimization, revictimization, or nonvictimization groups. Low-and high-frequency h...
Article
Criminology, as a field, has historically focused on social factors that contribute to the perpetration of crime. Although research has supported these influences as important predictors of criminal behavior, a substantial body of literature suggests that biological mechanisms also serve as risk and protective factors. In fact, research in this are...
Conference Paper
Background: Parental self-efficacy appears to play a role in parental competence and child adjustment in typically developing children (Jones, & Prinz, 2005) and children with autism (Hastings, & Brown). Relationships between children with autism and their siblings have been described as less intimate, prosocial, and nurturing (Kaminsky, & Dewey, 2...
Conference Paper
Background: Parents of children with autism experience elevated levels of stress (Bebko, Konstantareas, & Springer, 1987), and parental stress is negatively associated with benefits obtained from services (Robbins, Dunlap, & Plienin, 2008). Training parents using Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) has been shown to increase child-parent positive inte...
Conference Paper
Background: Emerging neurovisceral evidence suggests that children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) demonstrate lowered respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) at baseline compared to their typically developing peers (Bal et al., 2010; Van Hecke et al., 2009). Further, RSA patterns in ASD have been correlated to challenges in social...
Conference Paper
Background: Participatory action research (PAR) is a method used help develop interventions with the direct input of the target population. A primary assumption is that the understanding of a social problem requires the knowledge of directly affected individuals (Brown, 2009). PAR may provide an effective way for researchers to collaborate with t...
Conference Paper
Background: Children with autism from rural areas and disadvantaged backgrounds (low socioeconomic status; SES) tend to receive an ASD diagnosis at later ages (Rhoades, Scarpa, & Salley, 2008). This delay may increase the average age at which intervention is received (Mandell, Listerud, Levy, & Pinto-Martin, 2002; Mandell, Noval, & Zubritzky, 2005)...
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Problems with social anxiety are frequently reported in people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). It is possible that social anxiety, when present, exacerbates the experience of hostility and other forms of aggression in relation to ASD symptoms. This study sought to determine if social anxiety symptoms mediate the relationship between features...
Article
This study examined the link between cognitive coping strategies, type of abuse, and posttraumatic stress symptomatology. In a sample of 294 undergraduate women, several key findings emerged: (a) reported use of cognitive coping strategies significantly differed based on the type of abuse; (b) some differences in posttraumatic stress symptomatology...
Conference Paper
Background / Purpose: This study recruited participants (n = 23) between 4-7 years old with a previously diagnosed Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Participants were assigned to two groups: music (n = 11), audiobook (n = 12). The experimental session included psychophysiological monitoring during baseline, listening and recovery. A soothed autonom...
Conference Paper
Background: Early screening is considered crucial for receiving early intervention in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD; Kabot, Masi, & Segal, 2003); however, little is known about the differential diagnosis in toddlers who present clinical profiles associated with ASD vs. those who present clinical profiles associated with other psychol...
Conference Paper
Background: Emerging research shows that social anxiety may be related to aggression in children and adolescents with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders (HFASD) (Pugliese et al., 2010). Social anxiety, in neurotypical populations, is associated with specific cognitive biases, such as assuming others will judge them negatively, and a tendenc...
Conference Paper
Background: Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have difficulties modulating social behavior, including eye-to-eye gaze, vocalizations, and facial affect (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Physiologically, children with ASD have less cardiac vagal tone relative to typically developing peers (Bal et al., 2010; Van Hecke et al., 2009...
Article
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This pilot study tested the efficacy of a developmentally modified CBT for young children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) to teach emotion regulation strategies for reducing anger and anxiety, commonly noted problems in this population. Eleven 5-7 year-old children participated in a CBT-group while parents participated in psychoeducation. Chil...
Article
Given the sensitive nature of trauma-focused research, it is important that researchers understand the impact of research participation on study participants. The current study examined the relationship between type of child abuse, psychological adjustment, and self-reported participatory distress in 105 female adult survivors of childhood abuse. S...
Article
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Parents of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) have been shown to experience increases in stress, depression, and anxiety, which are also associated with child behavior problems related to ASDs. Literature-examining potential mechanisms that underlie the relationship of child behavior problems and parental anxiety/depression in this popu...
Article
Substantial empirical evidence supports low resting heart rate (HR) as the best replicated psychophysiological correlate of aggression [Ortiz and Raine, 2004]; however, researchers continue to debate the explanatory mechanisms of the phenomenon. Sensation seeking has been proposed as a possible outcome of low resting HR that may lead to aggressive...
Article
Family conflict and childhood anxiety has been implicated in the development of aggressive behaviors, but the nature of these relationships has not been fully explored. Thus, the present study examined the role of anxiety in moderating the relationship between family conflict and childhood aggression in 50 children aged 7 to 13 years. Specifically,...
Article
Previous research suggests that child physical abuse, depression, and aggressiveness are linked, but gender differences remain poorly understood. This study examined gender differences in the mediational relationships among these constructs, after controlling for the confounding effects of other negative life events. Men and women completed questio...
Conference Paper
Background: Previous research has found that children with Autistic Disorder, who are identified and treated before 5 years old, appear to benefit more from intensive treatment than those children treated after age 5 (Fenske, Zalenski, Krantz, & McClannahan, 1985). Although children with Autistic Disorder show deficits in pointing, showing object...
Conference Paper
Background: As noted in the diagnostic criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders-4th Edition (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 2000), children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) struggle with social interactions, including eye contact, vocalizations, and facial affect. Spurred by the minimal effects of social...
Article
Reactive aggression (RA) is an angry response to perceived provocation. Proactive aggression (PA) is a pre-meditated act used to achieve some goal. This study test hypotheses that (1) individuals high in RA and PA will differ in resting levels of autonomic arousal and (2) RA will be related to emotional and behavioral problems, while PA only to beh...
Article
The current retrospective study examined thought control strategies, or cognitive techniques individuals use to deal with unpleasant thoughts following stressful events, as potential mediators of adjustment in young women with histories of child sexual abuse (CSA). In a sample of 76 undergraduate women who self-reported on abuse experiences, though...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Background: Previous research has found that children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have pronounced deficits managing their emotions. Previous research has also shown that Cognitive Behavioral therapy improved symptoms related to anxiety and anger outbursts (Sofronoff et al., 2005, 2006). Researchers have found that parental confidence incre...
Conference Paper
Background: Emotion coaching refers to the ability of the parent to use emotional situations to help his or her child label the emotions, validate the emotional experience, problem-solve how to deal with these emotions, and/or understand the emotions. There is a growing literature examining the positive effects of emotion coaching on children’s abi...
Article
The current study examined cross-informant agreement and clinical utility of parent and teacher ratings of reactive and proactive aggression (two functions of aggression) in the prediction of aggressive and rule-breaking behavior (two forms of aggressive behavior) in a clinically-heterogeneous referred sample. Reactive and proactive measures were s...
Article
In order to more fully understand how individual differences influence adaptation to violence, this study examined the moderating influence of resting heart rate (HR) and HR variability (HRV) between community violence (CV) exposure and child reactive/proactive aggression. Forty 7-13-year-old community children self-reported CV exposure (i.e., vict...