This study examined longitudinal growth in gestures and words in infants at heightened (HR) vs. low risk (LR) for ASD. The MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory was administered monthly from 8 to 14 months and at 18 and 24 months to caregivers of 14 HR infants diagnosed with ASD (HR-ASD), 27 HR infants with language delay (HR-LD), 51 HR infants with no diagnosis (HR-ND), and 28 LR infants. Few differences were obtained between LR and HR-ND infants, but HR-LD and HR-ASD groups differed in initial skill levels and growth patterns. While HR-LD infants grew at rates comparable to LR and HR-ND infants, growth was attenuated in the HR-ASD group, with trajectories progressively diverging from all other groups.

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During the first year of life, infants spend substantial amounts of time exploring objects they encounter in their daily environments. Perceptuo-motor information gained through these experiences provides a foundation for later developmental advances in cognition and language. This study aims to examine developmental trajectories of visual, oral, and manual object exploration in infants with and without risk for autism spectrum disorder before the age of 1 year. A total of 31 infants, 15 of whom had an older sibling with autism and who were therefore at heightened risk for autism spectrum disorder, played with sounding and nonsounding rattles at 6 and 9 months of age. The results suggest that heightened-risk infants lag behind their low-risk peers in the exploration of objects. The findings are discussed in terms of how delays in object exploration in infancy may have cascading effects in other domains.

Social media usage is on the rise, with the majority of American adults using Facebook. The present study examined how Facebook activity affects mood in a subset of emerging adults, specifically undergraduates attending a private 4-year university. Participants (N ϭ 312) were randomly assigned to one of the following 20-min activities: browse the Internet, passively browse others' Facebook profiles, actively communicate with others on Facebook via messages/posts, or update their own personal profile on Facebook. Participants also completed questionnaires assessing mood, feelings of envy, and perceived meaningfulness of their time online. The results demonstrated that using Facebook led to significantly worsened mood compared with browsing the Internet, especially when participants passively browsed Facebook. Furthermore, perceptions of meaningfulness, but not feelings of envy, mediated the relationship between online activity and mood. Overall, these findings add to the mounting evidence that social media use may, at times, adversely affect psychological well-being. Public Policy Relevance StatementCollege students reported lower mood when passively browsing Facebook compared with other online activities, possibly due in part to feelings of wasted time. Results suggest that repeated use of social media may adversely affect psychological well-being in some emerging adults.

Emerging adults, defined as individuals between the ages of 18 and 29, are the most common users of social media. In addition, more than half of emerging adults have shared a "selfie," or a photograph taken of oneself, on social media. Selfies have been linked to various aspects of narcissism, though there is some evidence that this may vary by gender and age. The present study aimed to unpack links between gender, narcissism, and selfie-taking behaviors and to document motives for taking selfies. A total of 276 college students (218 females) between ages 17 and 29 years (M ϭ 20.03 years, SD ϭ 1.81) completed the Narcissistic Personality Inventory-13 (Gentile et al., 2013) and reported the number of selfies they had taken in the past week that included only themselves and the number that included others. Participants also listed their motives for posting selfies to social media. Results indicate that grandiose and exhibitionistic aspects of narcissism are tied to selfie-taking. Further, though no gender difference emerged for selfies taken alone, selfies featuring others were more common among women. Finally, regardless of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory-13 score, participants frequently cited narcissistic motives for taking selfies. Public Policy Relevance StatementTaking photographs of the self ("selfies") is a cultural phenomenon that is particularly common among college students. However, our results suggest that not all people take selfies in the same way: People who like to show off their bodies are more likely to take selfies, and women are more likely to take selfies that feature other people than men. Further, it seems that those who take selfies tend to engage in self-focused or self-promoting thinking.