ABSTRACT
The aim of this study is to determine the functioning of adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) diagnosed in childhood and depression and burnout levels among their parents. A total of 261 adults with ASDs and their parents were recruited for the study. Both parents completed the Beck Depression and Maslach Burnout Inventories and reported the functioning of their adult offspring with ASDs. Only 5.4 % of our sample reported "good" or "very good" outcomes. The most common psychiatric comorbidities were intellectual disabilities and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Maternal burnout and depression scores were significantly elevated compared to those of fathers. There is an undeniable urgent need for more research to identify the needs of adults and families suffering from ASD. Modifications for those with ASD may have to be made for support in workplaces, achieving driving licenses, using public transportation and attendance at tertiary education.
ABSTRACT
Visual context processing was investigated in both action video game players and nonplayers using the Ebbinghaus illusion task (N = 312, 39.4% female) in a cross-sectional study design. When presented in context, players showed markedly poorer target size discrimination accuracy compared with nonplayers in the 6-, 7-, 8-, and 9-years old age groups, but this difference was reduced in 10-years old group and diminished in adults. When presented in isolation (no-context), the two groups displayed similar performance in all age groups. Furthermore, nonplayers (linear) and players (bell curve) showed profoundly different age-related differences in context processing. These findings provide evidence that players might have enhanced perceptual bias to process visual context in the transition from early childhood to early adolescence, and the differences between the two groups start at early ages and continue with distinct developmental profiles.
Subject(s)
Video Games , Visual Perception , Child, Preschool , Adult , Adolescent , Humans , Female , Child , Male , Cross-Sectional StudiesABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to determine the psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the SF-12 Health - a widely used scale that assesses health - related quality of life - and to assess whether its psychometric properties are as good as with the 36 items long version (SF-36). METHOD: The study included a total of 190 participants including 138 young adults aged from 18 to 29 years (22.04±2.35) and 52 older adults aged from 60 to 80 years (67.27±5.22). The relationships between EQ-5D-3L, CES-D and SF-12 scales were investigated for content, convergent and divergent, criterion-related and the known-groups construct validity. In order to assess reliability, internal consistency and item-total correlation coefficients were calculated and test re-test analyses were conducted. RESULTS: The internal consistency coefficients of the scale were found to be satisfactory (for the components α=0.73 and 0.72). Consistent with the original study, physical and mental components of the SF-12-TR were found to be strongly correlated with the components of the SF- 36 and explained, respectively, 86.6% and 92.4% of the variance. The components of the SF-12-TR were found to be moderately or strongly correlated to the sub-dimensions of the EQ-5D-3L and CES-D, which measure the same structures, while they were unrelated or weakly correlated with the sub-dimensions measuring different structures. CONCLUSION: The findings indicated that the psychometric properties of the Turkish form of SF-12-TR are similar to the original version, and the SF-12-TR can be used as an alternative to the SF-36-TR in clinical and research settings in our country.
