This study is focused on exploring quality of life in young adults in the autism spectrum and the factors that contribute to their own perception of satisfaction with their lives. Autism Spectrum Disorder is a neurodevelopmental disability that is associated with deficits in social interaction and communication and with restricted and repetitive behaviors (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). There has been a documented increase in the diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), making it to be one of the fastest growing diagnosed disabilities in children (Hartley-McAndrew, 2014). In the United States, the prevalence of ASD is approximately 1 in 68 children, with 1 in 42 among boys (CDC, 2014). With this increase in recognition of the disorder, adult outcomes have become an increasing priority for this population. While the concept of quality of life has been used in the field of intellectual disabilities for decades, the factors contributing to quality of life of persons with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have received relatively little attention. The aim of this study was to examine the influences of degree of disability, social and communication ability, academic success, employment, and independence and autonomy on quality of life in young adults with high-functioning autism. Participants (N @ 230) were individuals from the dataset of the National Longitudinal Transition Study 2 (NLTS2) who had a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (Cameto, et al., 2004). Results indicated that employment, social involvement, communication (being able to communicate, converse, and understand), and autonomy were significant in predicting higher quality of life. Factors found not to contribute to QoL included degree of disability (Woodcock-Johnson III) and education. This study helps to shed light on the development of higher quality of life in young adults with ASD and highlights areas for future research and training with these members of society.

The developmental stage of emerging adulthood often poses substantial challenges that negatively impact bereavement experiences (Schultz, 2007; Tanner & Arnett, 2009). Some emerging adults may be even more at risk for adverse grief outcomes due to individual differences such as gender and ethnicity, but very few studies have investigated these variables within the population. We addressed this gap in the literature by investigating the influence of gender and ethnicity on college students’ bereavement experiences using the Hogan Grief Reaction Checklist (HGRC; Hogan, Greenfield, & Schmidt, 2001) Results indicates a significant relationship between ethnicity and levels of personal growth, use of religious coping, and type of loss. The present study found no clinically significant differences in male and female college student bereavement characteristics.

Research suggests college students with high incidence disabilities experience more distress than their peers without disabilities as they adapt to college. The expressive writing paradigm developed by Pennebaker and Beall (1986) effectively reduced distress in college students and other nonclinical samples when participants wrote about emotions they experienced surrounding an upsetting event. Previous research on expressive writing has not addressed the effectiveness of the paradigm with students with disabilities. A randomized control trial study examined changes in distress and daily hassles for participants with disabilities who engaged in expressive writing compared to a control condition in which participants wrote about non-emotional topics. Emotional competencies and coping were also explored as possible proximal outcomes, while distress at baseline and social support were explored as possible moderators of expressive writing outcomes. Fifty seven students, 51% male and mostly European-American (83.6%), from a large, public university and a local community college both in the Southeastern United States, wrote for 15 minutes on three consecutive days on their own personal computers, with assessment at pre-test, post-test and 30-day follow-up. Expressive writing did not significantly decrease stress or daily hassles, nor did treatment condition differ from the control condition on any of the factors examined. Discussion of participant factors explored possible ceiling effects due to low baseline distress scores and possible limitations related to employing a sample of students with disabilities who are currently receiving college-level support services. Other methodological and procedural issues were also discussed as they relate to best expressive writing practices as well as meeting the needs of students with disabilities. For example, although use of the computer for writing was deemed important for this group of participants, longer writing sessions that may be necessary to impact psychological outcomes could be difficult for students with disabilities. Future directions include qualitative analysis of writing samples in order to develop areas of concern for this population, beginning and ending expressive writing to align with the college academic calendar, as well as use of a control group without disabilities in order to control for baseline levels of distress. This document was created in Microsoft Word 2003.

Marijuana use among American young adults is rising, and perceptions of harm are declining. Individual states continue to enact more lenient marijuana use and possession laws. Marijuana use is associated with many serious negative outcomes. Thus, marijuana use among this age group has become a public health concern. According to Primary Socialization Theory, parents exert their influence on youth behavior through the parent-adolescent bond and through communication. Previous researchers have identified parent-offspring communication about alcohol and tobacco as a potentially important target of prevention efforts. Little research has yet explored marijuana communication and its potential influence on use-related outcomes. This study sought to model the influence of the parent-adolescent bond and parent-offspring communication about marijuana on marijuana use and problems related to use. In order to model this influence, the Communication about Marijuana (CAM) measure first was developed. In Study 1, an initial pool of items tapping marijuana communication was tested using a sample of 18-25 year old (M=20.22) undergraduate students (N=433). Confirmatory factor analyses were performed to test the fit of the data to the proposed model. In Study 2, a revised CAM measure was tested with a second sample of 18-25 year old (M=20.40) undergraduate students (N=432). The final measure included four content topic factors comprising 9 items, and 3 descriptive items tapping communication context. Structural equation models were specified to model the parent-adolescent bond and marijuana communication content on student self-reported past year marijuana use and marijuana use problems. Results suggested that the parent-adolescent bond was protective on marijuana use frequency, while models including only the manifest variable parental support better fit the data with regard to marijuana use problems. Communication content was somewhat differentially related to outcomes. Discussions encouraging abstinence, offering advice on peer pressure and monitoring use were related to more frequent use. Communication that conveyed disappointment about marijuana use and offered advice about peer pressure and choosing non-using friends was related to more marijuana use problems. Positive relations between communication and use outcomes were unexpected, but may reflect reactive parenting. Results and implications for future research are discussed in the context of the extant literature.

Bereavement is an important research area as it can result in grief reactions that lead to serious psychological and health consequences, particularly for the at-risk group of emerging adults (Arnett, 2000; Balk, Walker, & Baker, 2010; Fisher, Murray, & Frazer, 1985; Stroebe, Schut, & Stroebe, 2007). Expressive writing is a well-researched intervention for trauma and adjustment, yet research repeatedly has revealed null results with the classic Pennebaker paradigm as a bereavement intervention (Stroebe et al., 2002; Stroebe, Schut, & Stroebe, 2006). It may be premature, however, to conclude expressive writing is ineffective for the bereaved due to limitations in extant research. For example, Pennebaker’s paradigm is based on the premise that participants freely choose the stressful topic to write about, whereas expressive writing bereavement studies have required participants to write about their loss (Collison & Gramling, manuscript in preparation). The present study reports on data from a larger study (Konig, Eonta, Dyal, & Vrana, 2014; N=246) that assessed psychological and physiological outcomes in college students who wrote about a traumatic stressor using Pennebaker’s paradigm. This provided the opportunity to rigorously test it with bereavement and compare death loss to other forms of trauma. Analyses examined the impact of expressive writing with the bereaved who freely identified death loss as the traumatic stressor (n=69) and were randomly assigned to either emotional disclosure or control writing on outcome measures of physical symptoms (PILL), event-related distress (DTS), and depression (CES-D). Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC; Pennebaker, Mayne, & Francis, 1997) and Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA; Campbell & Pennebaker, 2003) results were also used to compare these groups. Exploratory analyses investigated potential differences between the bereaved and those who endorsed a non-bereavement trauma (“other trauma”; n=71) using outcome measures and text analytic techniques (i.e., PILL, DTS, CES-D; LIWC, LSA). Results were consistent with findings from previous expressive writing studies with the bereaved, in that the intervention resulted in no detectable benefits when compared with control writing. No remarkable differences between the bereaved and “other trauma” participants emerged. Researchers’ time may be better spent examining more clinically relevant writing exercises for bereavement interventions.

This longitudinal study examined the relationship between Zimbardo time perspectives (TPs) and career decision-making self-efficacy (CDMSE). In total, 1,753 young adults participated in the longitudinal study. For the present study, we selected only participants who were students and provided information on TPs, CDMSE, and sociodemographic characteristics (n = 492, M = 22.97 years, SD = 1.32, 82.9% women). The results of multilevel modeling showed that future orientation and present-hedonistic TPs were positively related to CDMSE, whereas present-fatalistic and past-negative TPs were negatively related to CDMSE. These findings indicate that besides the beneficial effect of widely studied future TP, the negative role of past-negative and present-fatalistic TPs should be considered in connection with the career development of emerging adults.

Previous research has produced heterogeneous findings regarding the effectiveness of expressive writing in reducing grief symptomatology among the bereaved (e.g., Collison, 2016; Lichtenthal & Cruess, 2010; Stroebe et al., 2006). The purpose of this study was to address these mixed results by exploring the effects and linguistic characteristics of a novel writing task (i.e., the acrostic poem) among bereaved undergraduates, using an innovative data analysis technique (i.e., Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count). The current study recruited 68 undergraduates who had lost a loved one. Participants were randomly assigned to write over multiple days using the acrostic poem, emotional disclosure prompt, or a control writing prompt. Consistent with previous research, the results indicated no significant differences in grief between conditions over time; however, there were key group differences in linguistic content. Further, while all participants endorsed improvements in grief one week following the intervention, the participants returned to baseline one month later. Patterns of writing, coping, religiosity/ spirituality, physical symptoms, and grief in bereaved emerging adults were also assessed. The results suggest that while expressive writing might not be an effective intervention for the bereaved, the content of writing might provide clinicians some insight on psychological and spiritual processes at play in bereaved emerging adults.

This study examined the effect of the experience of a loss on alcohol use and drinking motives in a college sample. Participants for this study were drawn from the “Spit for Science” project (Dick et al., 2014). The sample included 3,013 students (31.8% men, 68.2% women; 44.3% White, 21.1% Black, 19.6% Asian, 6.0% Latinx; mean age = 18.96; 16.2% bereaved) from Virginia Commonwealth University. Data were collected from participants’ freshman spring and sophomore spring time points on the Life Events Checklist, Alcohol Consumption items, and Drinking Motives Questionnaire-Revised. Participants who were bereaved between the freshman and sophomore timepoint did not significantly differ in their alcohol consumption, coping drinking motives, or conformity drinking motives compared to their non-bereaved counterparts. Limitations and future directions for research are reviewed.

This study investigated romantic relationship attitudes and experiences as factors of interethnic romantic relationships among Native American (NA) emerging adults. The study included 114 participants ages 18 to 25 years from about 70 NA indigenous groups across North America. Factors were organized into the moral, societal, and psychological domains of the social-cognitive domain theory. Factors identified by this study included four significant predictors of past interethnic dating and three significant predictors of future likelihood of NA dating among emerging adults with differences between NA relationships with Whites or with other minorities. Past dating experiences associated with strong White identity, past multicultural interaction, diversity climate in childhood community, and past parental support of interethnic dating relationships. Future likelihood of engagement in interethnic romantic relationships for NA emerging adults associated with past interethnic dating and other multicultural interactions. Past multicultural interactions was the only predictor that emerged in NA romantic relationships with both Whites and other minorities.

The aim of the study was to explore the role of autonomy in participants’ self-management of exercise behaviours and the transfer of responsibility throughout adolescence. The design of this study used qualitative description with information collected and presented using a case study approach. Participants were five emerging adults (aged 18–24) with Type 1 diabetes for a minimum of one year who lived in Canterbury. Data was gathered through three sources: a semi-structured interview seeking self-reported exercise throughout adolescence, a set of questionnaires based on four instruments, and physical activity performed over a week as recorded by an activity monitor. All participants achieved autonomy for exercise, however participants achieved autonomy at different ages. Participants’ diabetes self-management and physical activity levels varied according to their stage of life and lifestyle. They received varying advice about exercise from health professionals. Participants sought to determine their own exercise choices during adolescence, leading them to obtain a driver licence to be independent of parental transport. Three of the five met current guidelines for physical activity levels, and another met recommendations by her clinician. Policy implications regarding healthcare advice and barriers to exercise for young people are discussed, as are limitations of the research and future avenues for research.