Poster Symposium - Health and Technology

• Parents of Children With Autism and the Internet: What do we Know?
  Presented by: Jennifer S. Reinke, Jodi Dworkin, Aaron T. Ebata

• Participation in Health Activities on Social-Networking Internet Sites
  Presented by: Kate Bellamy, M.S., Jan Colvin, Heather McCollum, Amy Yates

• Kissing Many Frogs Before Finding the Real Prince: Costs and Benefits of Hooking Up Presented by: Rebecca J. Ward, I. Joyce Chang, Deborah Padgett Coehlo

Abstracts:

Parents of Children With Autism and the Internet: What do we Know?

Presented by: Jennifer S. Reinke, Jodi Dworkin, Aaron T. Ebata

A diagnosis of autism involves a lot of questions, ambiguity, and parents' unyielding search for answers and information. This quantitative study examined the differences in online activities among parents of children with autism, parents of children with a disability other than autism, and parents of children with no disabilities. Results suggest that participating in online activities is an important resource for parents of children with a disability, particularly autism, as parents of children with autism partcipated in online activities more frequently than either of the other two groups.

Participation in Health Activities on Social-Networking Internet Sites

Presented by: Kate Bellamy, M.S., Jan Colvin, Heather McCollum, Amy Yates

The purpose of the project was to examine personal characteristics and Internet behaviors of users in relation to social networking sites and health. This study used secondary data from a Health Survey conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project in 2008. Using a sub-sample of 417 individuals who had accessed social networking sites, this project found that the activity of reading health-related material online, younger age, and lower education predicted the likelihood of posting health-related material on social networking websites. The presence of chronic disease was not associated with whether or not participants posted. 

Kissing Many Frogs Before Finding the Real Prince: Costs and Benefits of Hooking Up

Presented by: Rebecca J. Ward, I. Joyce Chang, Deborah Padgett Coehlo

The project intended to identify the prevalence, costs and benefits of hooking up practices among young adults. Hooking up was defined as a casual sexual encounter between two willing strangers or acquaintances.  The participants in this study were 139 adults (115 females and 24 males). The result showed 70.6% of males and 63.4% of females had experienced hooking up. High level of consensus was found among the participants regarding the unspoken rules such as secrecy and absence of intimacy. The cost of hooking up was found to be greater for female participants since they reported significantly more psychological distress.