The first objective in this dissertation was to use microanalysis and a dyadic approach to investigate infant social responsiveness. Therefore, I developed a method that used a projective pairs framework: Parental social actions towards infants (i.e., overtures) projected particular infant behaviours. I analyzed whether infant behaviours following these overtures matched what the overture had projected; if they matched, the infant’s behaviours were a response. The data were one family’s home videos of their triplet infants (two males, one female), filmed when the infants were 6 to 15 months old. When the triplets were approximately three years old, clinical assessment indicated that one of the males had Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), which impairs an individual’s social behaviors. The second objective here was to test whether the projective pairs framework would reveal early social deficits in the infant with ASD. This result would hold potential for earlier diagnosis (and thus earlier intervention). Researchers have used home videos to look for signs of ASD retrospectively, but these studies have been vulnerable to variability in the data, and often analyses of infant social behaviours did not connect these behaviours to their social, dyadic context. In this dissertation, the home videos were from one family; therefore the data were more homogeneous, and the projective pairs framework preserved the immediate context. The data for Study I were 23 minutes of excerpts (infants’ age 11-15 months). The microanalysis focused on overall infant responsiveness (i.e., the number of times each infant responded over the number of overtures that infant received). The infant with ASD was significantly less responsive than his two siblings. The data for Study II were all of the family’s home videos from when the infants were 6-15 months old (approximately 6 hours). Study II included (1) an exploration of specific functions of overtures (e.g., greeting the infant, getting the infant’s attention), and (2) an analysis of infant behaviours preceding overtures (e.g., looking at the parent, actively engaged elsewhere). The findings from Study II replicated Study I, they also painted a more complex picture. First, like his siblings, the infant with ASD responded to all non-social overtures, almost all helping overtures (e.g., taking a bottle that the parent had passed), and approximately half of overtures that served to seek his attention or to tell him to do something. Second, the infant with ASD was significantly less responsive to parental overtures that were more ambiguous (e.g., playing with the infant, narrating the infant’s actions). Third, regardless of the overture’s function, the infant with ASD was more likely to respond if he had looked at the parent immediately before the overture or if the overture included his name. A dyadic approach to the microanalysis of infant responsiveness identified those social interactions in which (1) the infant with ASD was as responsive as his siblings; (2) the infant with ASD was significantly less responsive than his siblings; and (3) the infant with ASD was the most responsive.

The purpose of this study was threefold: (a) develop, validate, and compare two measures, viewing time and choice reaction time, that sexual content induced delay (SCID; Geer & Bellard, 1996) among youth non-sexual offenders, university students, and adults who had sexually offended, (b) address some of the methodological weaknesses in prior research, and (c) examine the measures’ clinical utility by investigating their predictive validity via estimates of sensitivity and specificity. Viewing time (VT) assesses how long an individual takes to view an image of a single person while completing a task, and choice reaction time (CRT) measures how quickly and accurately an individual indicates to which category (there must be two or more from which the participant can choose) the presented stimulus belongs. I administered the two measures plus questionnaires on sexual orientation (Friedman et al., 2004) and social desirability (BIDR-6; Paulhus, 1991) to three samples: youth non-sexual offenders, university students, and adult sex offender. I examined the clinical utility of the measures by investigating their predictive validity via ROC estimates of sensitivity and specificity. Each measure consisted of a preset randomized presentation of computer-modified clothed male and female images of various ages. There are five central results from this study. First, both the VT and CRT measures produced subtest scores with high reliability, via item and scale analysis, with all three samples, and there appears to be one dominant underlying construct for both measures. Second, there were significant differences between the adult sexual offenders and the youth non-sexual offenders when assessed with the VT measures, but not between the youth non-sexual offenders and the university students. In this study, neither age nor education influenced these results. Third, there were significant differences between youth non-sexual offenders and the university sample when assessed with the CRT measure, but not between the adult sex offenders and either the youth non-sexual offenders or university students. Fourth, as evidenced by point two and three, the VT and CRT measures provided significantly different results. Finally, the VT measure demonstrated excellent clinical utility in its ability to differentiate adult heterosexual sexual offenders from non-sexual offenders (for example, AUC = 0.87 female mature images, 0.88 male child images).

Adolescence heralds a unique period of vulnerability to depressive symptoms. The current study examined relational victimization, targeting adolescents’ interpersonal relationships, as a unique predictor of depressive symptoms in a broad age range of adolescents. Past research shows that interpersonal resources—particularly emotional support—are negatively related to depression. In this study, the moderating effects of emotional support from mothers, fathers, and peers on the association between relational victimization and depressive symptoms were investigated. As expected, high levels of maternal and peer emotional support buffered the association between relational victimization and depressive symptoms. Emotional support from fathers did not moderate this relationship. Findings also suggest that while support from peers is protective against concurrent depressive symptoms, it can be detrimental to adolescent’s mental health over time. In contrast, maternal emotional support buffers future depressive symptoms associated with past experiences of relational victimization.

Composting of biodegradable waste is an effective means of reducing landfill garbage and improving the state of our environment. The widespread adoption of this behaviour by community members is subject to various social psychological processes. Table top signs outlining a pro-composting injunctive norm, and models demonstrating the behaviour (descriptive norm) were employed in two shopping centre food courts and a fast food restaurant to attempt to increase the use of public compost bins. When diners viewed models composting ahead of them, they were more likely to compost as well. However, the signs had no effect on composting rates, either alone or in combination with the models. Results support the idea that behaving in a pro-environmental manner around others can have an influence on them to behave pro-environmentally as well.

The first objective in this dissertation was to use microanalysis and a dyadic approach to investigate infant social responsiveness. Therefore, I developed a method that used a projective pairs framework: Parental social actions towards infants (i.e., overtures) projected particular infant behaviours. I analyzed whether infant behaviours following these overtures matched what the overture had projected; if they matched, the infant’s behaviours were a response. The data were one family’s home videos of their triplet infants (two males, one female), filmed when the infants were 6 to 15 months old. When the triplets were approximately three years old, clinical assessment indicated that one of the males had Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), which impairs an individual’s social behaviors. The second objective here was to test whether the projective pairs framework would reveal early social deficits in the infant with ASD. This result would hold potential for earlier diagnosis (and thus earlier intervention). Researchers have used home videos to look for signs of ASD retrospectively, but these studies have been vulnerable to variability in the data, and often analyses of infant social behaviours did not connect these behaviours to their social, dyadic context. In this dissertation, the home videos were from one family; therefore the data were more homogeneous, and the projective pairs framework preserved the immediate context. The data for Study I were 23 minutes of excerpts (infants’ age 11-15 months). The microanalysis focused on overall infant responsiveness (i.e., the number of times each infant responded over the number of overtures that infant received). The infant with ASD was significantly less responsive than his two siblings. The data for Study II were all of the family’s home videos from when the infants were 6-15 months old (approximately 6 hours). Study II included (1) an exploration of specific functions of overtures (e.g., greeting the infant, getting the infant’s attention), and (2) an analysis of infant behaviours preceding overtures (e.g., looking at the parent, actively engaged elsewhere). The findings from Study II replicated Study I, they also painted a more complex picture. First, like his siblings, the infant with ASD responded to all non-social overtures, almost all helping overtures (e.g., taking a bottle that the parent had passed), and approximately half of overtures that served to seek his attention or to tell him to do something. Second, the infant with ASD was significantly less responsive to parental overtures that were more ambiguous (e.g., playing with the infant, narrating the infant’s actions). Third, regardless of the overture’s function, the infant with ASD was more likely to respond if he had looked at the parent immediately before the overture or if the overture included his name. A dyadic approach to the microanalysis of infant responsiveness identified those social interactions in which (1) the infant with ASD was as responsive as his siblings; (2) the infant with ASD was significantly less responsive than his siblings; and (3) the infant with ASD was the most responsive.

Adolescence heralds a unique period of vulnerability to depressive symptoms. The current study examined relational victimization, targeting adolescents’ interpersonal relationships, as a unique predictor of depressive symptoms in a broad age range of adolescents. Past research shows that interpersonal resources—particularly emotional support—are negatively related to depression. In this study, the moderating effects of emotional support from mothers, fathers, and peers on the association between relational victimization and depressive symptoms were investigated. As expected, high levels of maternal and peer emotional support buffered the association between relational victimization and depressive symptoms. Emotional support from fathers did not moderate this relationship. Findings also suggest that while support from peers is protective against concurrent depressive symptoms, it can be detrimental to adolescent’s mental health over time. In contrast, maternal emotional support buffers future depressive symptoms associated with past experiences of relational victimization.

This research examined the impact of eyewitness identification decisions on student-investigators. Undergraduates played the role of police investigators and interviewed student-witnesses who in Studies 1 and 2 had been shown either a good or poor view of the perpetrator or in Study 3 viewed either a Caucasian or an Asian criminal, in a video-taped crime. Based on information obtained from the witness, student-investigators then chose a suspect from a database containing information about potential suspects and rated the probability that their suspect was the culprit. Investigators then administered a photo lineup to witnesses, and re-rated the probability that their suspect was guilty. Student-investigators were highly influenced by eyewitness identification decisions, typically overestimating the information gained from the identification decision (except under conditions that led witnesses to be very accurate), and generally did not differentiate between accurate and inaccurate witnesses.

This dissertation explores the questions: (l) how use of specific information and communication technologies (ICT) matters to youth, (2) how use of these ICT is experienced by youth and (3) how youth conceptualize their relations to ICT in their daily lives. It provides a networked perspective that emphasizes youth's experiences of ICT in contexts. This networked perspective focuses on the dynamic connections between adolescent development, societal change and technological innovations when understanding youth's ICT use. Such a perspective positions youth as nexus in online and offline relational networks. It recognizes youth as actors who experience intense emotions when using ICT and who learn skills to navigate and negotiate these networks. Simultaneously, it situates youth's experiences of ICT use as emergent from adolescent, societal and technological contexts and within continuous cultural change. Methodologically, this study draws on multi-sited ethnographic research practices (Marcus, 1998; 2005) as well as being guided by the notion of congruency between site, methodology, and phenomenon (Oberg, 2003). Data was primarily gathered through four interviews held with six youth aged 16-18, two focus groups, and the researcher's immersion over five years in the Computer Human Interaction Software Engineering Lab (CHISEL). Three themes of how ICT use matters to youth emerged: Fun, Convenience and Connections. These themes illuminate how ICT have multiple ways of mattering for young people within their unique life contexts, such as providing continued connections to peers after school and shifting spatial and temporal boundaries. Patterns of emotional experience emerged that encompassed simultaneous existence of contradictory emotions (e.g., stimulating and overwhelming) when engaged in a specific activity such as instant messaging. Examples of Self-ICT relations are: "We're immersed" and "I feel empty without it." These conceptualizations are linked to networked theories of self that constitute ICT as in relation to self. This dissertation concludes by applying a networked perspective to understanding youth's ICT use as well as stepping back in order to raise larger cultural questions. It argues for the importance of recognizing the complexities that shape human — ICT connections in order to assist youth in learning skills to negotiate their emergent sense of self successfully.

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the experience of front-line practitioners working with suicidal children and youth. Five front-line practitioners who had experienced working with children or youth who were suicidal participated in the semi-structured interviews. Transcripts of the interviews were analyzed and summarized under the following three areas of experience: Participants' Descriptions of Working with Suicidal Children and Youth, Knowledge Valued by Participants' to Inform their Practice with Suicidal Children and Youth, and Participants' Physical and Emotional Responses to Suicidal Children and Youth. There were a total of sixteen emergent theme clusters. The themes related to the experience of practice with suicidal children and youth provided a rich context for understanding the nature of meaning of the suicidal behaviors for participants. The emergent themes relating to the knowledge valued by participants to guide their approach provided a specific understanding of the multiple sources of knowledge participants were drawing from in the encounters. The emergent themes relating to the physical and emotional responses participants experienced in relation to their encounters with a suicidal child or youth provided an awareness of the impact the encounters had on participants. The major findings included the participants' broad scope of knowledge they used to guide their approach, as well as that encounters with suicidal children and youth did evoke strong physical and emotional responses amongst participants. The study concludes by describing the implications of these findings for Child and Youth Care practice and for future directions in research.

The impact of transportation concerning older adults is under scrutiny as the number of older adults is expected to significantly increase in the coming years. The World Health Organization (WHO) spearheaded a world wide initiative that sought to examine what contributed to an “age-friendly community” in both developed and underdeveloped nations. This paper examines, in particular, the role that transportation plays in relation and contribution to an “age-friendly” community in Saanich, British Columbia, as an addition to the WHO initiative. Focus groups were conducted to ensure that information received was the lived experience of the individual. Results suggested that transportation was more than the ability to operate a vehicle, but in the ability to move safely within an environment. Additional information provided by participants spoke to the necessity of increasing awareness of licensing systems and improvements that could be implemented to ensure safety for older adult drivers and the community.