With the emergence of occupational science, there has been renewed interest in the health benefits of occupational engagement and a call for more research into the occupational nature of humans. Engaging in occupations is known to have a positive effect on an individual's health and sense of wellbeing. A common feature of people with schizophrenia, however, is a decrease in volition and a reduction in the occupations performed. This study explored some of the influences on occupational engagement for people with schizophrenia living in the community. A qualitative approach was chosen, using semi-structured interviews. Four male and four female participants, aged 23 to 49 years, described the influences on their occupational engagement. Content analysis, primarily using coding and memoing, was employed to categorise the data. Four main themes emerged: health, routine, external factors and internal factors. Some specific factors identified within these themes were medication, daily schedules, staff, family, work, self-concept and challenges. The implications of the results are discussed, with particular reference to assisting occupational therapists to enable clients with schizophrenia to engage more successfully in occupations.

Few studies have been conducted that address homelessness from the perspective of those who have experienced it. Studies tend to focus on services for homeless people, with little description of occupational engagement and the experiences of the homeless people themselves. This qualitative study, conducted within a phenomenological tradition, explored the lived experiences of adult men living in an inner-city shelter. Eight individual, unstructured interviews were carried out. In addition, three visual notebooks were compiled by the men, using photographs and text that illustrated the occupational realities of their life-world. Inductive, narrative analysis revealed four themes: keeping busy; street-life environment; loss; and revelation and sharing of self. The findings provide insight into the lives of homeless men. They therefore help to inform occupational therapy within a shelter environment in order to facilitate the homeless men moving forward to increased and more meaningful engagement in occupation and independent lives.

Research into emotional responsiveness in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has yielded mixed findings. Some studies report uniform, flat and emotionless expressions in ASD; others describe highly variable expressions that are as or even more intense than those of typically developing (TD) individuals. Variability in findings is likely due to differences in study design: some studies have examined posed (i.e., not spontaneous expressions) and others have examined spontaneous expressions in social contexts, during which individuals with ASD-by nature of the disorder-are likely to behave differently than their TD peers. To determine whether (and how) spontaneous facial expressions and other emotional responses are different from TD individuals, we video-recorded the spontaneous responses of children and adolescents with and without ASD (between the ages of 10 and 17 years) as they watched emotionally evocative videos in a non-social context. Researchers coded facial expressions for intensity, and noted the presence of laughter and other responsive vocalizations. Adolescents with ASD displayed more intense, frequent and varied spontaneous facial expressions than their TD peers. They also produced significantly more emotional vocalizations, including laughter. Individuals with ASD may display their emotions more frequently and more intensely than TD individuals when they are unencumbered by social pressure. Differences in the interpretation of the social setting and/or understanding of emotional display rules may also contribute to differences in emotional behaviors between groups.