Effects of preference on performing a self-care skill among children with autism spectrum disorder

In this study, four children with autism were assessed to determine their preference choices for toothbrushes and toothpastes included during self-care skills teaching sessions. For two of the children, the presence of high-preference (HP) materials was associated with improved independent tooth brushing when compared to the presence of low-preference (LP) materials. There was no difference in independent tooth brushing between HP/LP conditions for the other two children. These findings suggest that preference and choice of materials alone can be a helpful instructional strategy for care providers serving children who have neurodevelopmental disorders and skill deficits.     

Antecedents of Trust among Citizens and Non-citizens in Qatar

Utilizing new survey data on social capital, we examine the determinants and locus of generalized trust among citizens and immigrants in Qatar, a small, heterogeneous, wealthy, and non-democratic country in which immigrants far outnumber citizens. Scholars of social capital have explored the development of generalized trust in many countries. Most of this attention has focused on the Western world, and little is known about how trust forms in other contexts. Our findings show that important insights resulting from research in developed democracies apply and have explanatory power in some of the very different environments present in Qatar, that these insights do not apply and have explanatory power in some of the other environments present in Qatar, that circumstances and experiences that characterize this array of environments can be identified and described in terms of variable attributes, and that linkages can be established between these attributes and particular antecedents of generalized trust.