This study investigated how forgiveness from a victim of harm affects the moral emotions and behavior of persons with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) versus persons with typical development (TD). Accidental harm scenarios were presented to 15 people with ASD and 35 with TD from middle childhood to adolescence, and all were asked to evaluate their guilt and the cost of the compensatory behavior when a recipient forgives or does not forgive. The result shows that guilt was strongly aroused in both groups of participants whether or not the recipient forgave them. In addition, they considered that their compensatory behavior cost more when they were not forgiven than when they were. However, participants with ASD exhibited differences in the cost of compensatory behavior depending on the context. These results suggest that both individuals with TD and individuals with ASD feel guilty and have a common motivation for compensatory behavior but that people with ASD place more value on contextual information such as the importance of the outcome to the recipient.

This study examined the impact of joint attention in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) on the levels of parenting stress experienced by their mothers. The study recruited 57 pairs of children with intellectual disabilities and their mothers and divided them into three groups, namely, ASD diagnosis (n＝30), ASD trait (n＝14), and non-ASD (n＝13). We evaluated the ASD symptoms, development of joint attention, maladaptive behaviors in children and levels of parenting stress in their mothers. Furthermore, we analyzed the relationship among these variables. The results of mediation analysis revealed that the ASD symptoms of the children mediated the relationship between their development of joint attention and levels of parenting stress in their mothers. The mediating relationship remained the same even when the children's maladaptive behaviors, which are strongly related to parenting stress, were set as covariates. Thus, the study could confirm the robustness of the results. The findings suggested that the development of joint attention not only support the development and adaptation of children with ASD but also improve the mental health of their mothers.

This study investigated the mediating roles of difficulties in life and social support in the association between autistic traits and psychological adaptation. This study assumed three mediating processes, namely, increased difficulties in life due to autistic traits decreases psychological adaptation, decreased social support due to autistic traits decreases psychological adaptation, and decreased social support due to autistic traits increases difficulties in life, which leads to decreased psychological adaptation. We analyzed data from 2,034 university students using structural equation modeling. The results demonstrated that difficulties in life and social support largely mediated the effects of autistic traits. In addition, difficulties in life primarily mediated the effects of autistic traits on three variables of psychological adaptation, namely, self-esteem, depression, and anxiety. Lastly, social support mainly mediated the effects of autistic traits on life satisfaction.

This study investigated the development of concept learning in children aged 3–6 years using riddles. The contents of the riddles were animals, fruits, cars, vehicles, and objects in the house, where the questions highlighted the features and uses of the objects, e.g., “What animal has a big body and a long nose?” Young children solved riddles with greater ability with age. A difference was seen in skill with respect to difficulty level depending on the content, such that animal riddles were easier than vehicle riddles. It is suggested that solving riddles can be used to evaluate the development of concepts related to language ability and communication with others in young children.

【Research Impact】

This study reported that instructing children to solve riddles is useful for evaluating their development and is particularly valuable when applied to children aged 4 years due to an increase in age-related riddle-solving ability. Therefore, this study evidences a simple means through which researchers can assess the development of children's abilities to understand and communicate the concepts.