Specific Social Behaviors Research Articles

Relations Between Nonverbal and Verbal Social Cognitive Skills and Complex Social Behavior in Children and Adolescents with Autism.

Although there is an extensive literature on domains of social skill deficits in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), little research has examined the relation between specific social cognitive skills and complex social behaviors in daily functioning. This was the aim of the present study. Participants were 37 (26 male and 11 female) children and adolescents aged 6-18years diagnosed with ASD. To determine the amount of variance in parent-rated complex social behavior accounted for by the linear combination of five directly-assessed social cognitive variables (i.e., adult and child facial and vocal affect recognition and social judgment) after controlling for general intellectual ability, a hierarchical regression analysis was performed. The linear combination of variables accounted for 35.4% of the variance in parent-rated complex social behavior. Vocal affect recognition in adult voices showed the strongest association with complex social behavior in ASD. Results suggest that assessment and training in vocal affective comprehension should be an important component of social skills interventions for individuals with ASD.

The Impact of Social Media on Personal and Professional Lives: An Adlerian Perspective

A Pew Research Internet Project report indicates that 73% of adults online use some kind of social networking site (Duggan & Smith, 2013). Given this widespread “social” behavior, Adlerian mental health providers should comprehend the positive and negative impact of social media use. This article defines and applies holism, teleology, striving, and phenomenology to interpret current research on social media use. Social interest and community feeling guide the analysis of the positive versus the negative impact of this now-common human practice. Social media use can educate and reduce isolation of clients demonstrating its practicality and pragmatism. Clinicians’ and clients’ lack of awareness and knowledge of the impact of social media use on their relationships connotes a risk. Solutions are provided to help maintain and deepen the therapeutic relationships. Interpretations of specific social media behavior are offered through an Adlerian lens of striving and phenomenology to underscore the need to look at motivation and context while understanding someone’s behavior.

Epigenetic modification of the oxytocin receptor gene influences the perception of anger and fear in the human brain

In humans, the neuropeptide oxytocin plays a critical role in social and emotional behavior. The actions of this molecule are dependent on a protein that acts as its receptor, which is encoded by the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR). DNA methylation of OXTR, an epigenetic modification, directly influences gene transcription and is variable in humans. However, the impact of this variability on specific social behaviors is unknown. We hypothesized that variability in OXTR methylation impacts social perceptual processes often linked with oxytocin, such as perception of facial emotions. Using an imaging epigenetic approach, we established a relationship between OXTR methylation and neural activity in response to emotional face processing. Specifically, high levels of OXTR methylation were associated with greater amounts of activity in regions associated with face and emotion processing including amygdala, fusiform, and insula. Importantly, we found that these higher levels of OXTR methylation were also associated with decreased functional coupling of amygdala with regions involved in affect appraisal and emotion regulation. These data indicate that the human endogenous oxytocin system is involved in attenuation of the fear response, corroborating research implicating intranasal oxytocin in the same processes. Our findings highlight the importance of including epigenetic mechanisms in the description of the endogenous oxytocin system and further support a central role for oxytocin in social cognition. This approach linking epigenetic variability with neural endophenotypes may broadly explain individual differences in phenotype including susceptibility or resilience to disease.

Accessing Peer Social Interaction

Autism spectrum and related communication and social disorders can severely affect some children's ability to engage in peer social interaction. In this article, we describe and evaluate an Authorable Virtual Peer (AVP), technology designed to help children access peer interactions by supporting them in developing critical social skills. Children interact with the AVP in three ways: (1) engaging in face-to-face interaction with a life-sized, computer-animated child; (2) creating new social behaviors for the AVP; and (3) controlling the AVP using a graphical user interface to select appropriate responses while the AVP interacts with another person. Our evaluation suggests that when an AVP is used as an activity during a social group intervention, a common intervention approach used with children with social and communication difficulties, that children's use of specific social behaviors critical to successful social interaction increases during role-play of common social situations with another child.

Synaptic basis of social dysfunction: a focus on postsynaptic proteins linking group‐I mGluRs with AMPARs and NMDARs

Most of us engage in social interactions on a daily basis and the repertoire of social behaviors we acquire during development and later in life are incredibly varied. However, in many neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), social behavior is severely compromised and indeed this represents a key diagnostic component for such conditions. From genetic association studies, it is increasingly apparent that genes identified as altered in individuals with ASDs often encode synaptic proteins. Moreover, these synaptic proteins typically serve to scaffold group-I metabotropic glutamate receptors (group-I mGluRs) and ionotropic glutamate receptors (iGluRs; AMPARs and NMDARs), or to enable group-I mGluR to iGluR crosstalk via protein synthesis. Here we aim to explore the possibility of a causal link between altered function of such synaptic proteins and impaired social behaviors that feature in neurodevelopmental disorders, such as ASDs. We review the known synaptic function and role in social behaviors of selected post-synaptic structural proteins (Shank, SAPAP and neuroligin) and regulators of protein synthesis (TSC1/2, FMRP and PTEN). While manipulations of proteins involved in group-I mGluR and iGluR scaffolding or crosstalk frequently lead to profound alterations in synaptic function and one or more components of social behavior, the neuronal circuits responsible for impairments in specific social behaviors are often poorly defined. We argue for an improved understanding of the neuronal circuits underlying specific social behaviors to aid the development of new ASD therapies.

Long-term behavioral effects of neonatal blockade of gastrin-releasing peptide receptors in rats: Similarities to autism spectrum disorders

Gastrin releasing peptide, the mammalian counterpart of the amphibian peptide, bombesin, has been increasingly implicated in regulating normal brain function as well as in the pathogenesis of psychiatric and/or neurodevelopmental disorders. We have previously shown that the neonatal blockade of the gastrin-releasing peptide receptor (GRPr) in rats produces long-lasting consequences during central nervous system development that are commonly observed in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorders. The present investigation assessed in further detail, long-term behavioral effects of neonatal GRPr blockade. During postnatal days 1–10, male Wistar rat pups (n=5–10/litter) were injected (subcutaneously) with the GRPr antagonist, RC-3095 (1mg/kg), or a vehicle (control), twice daily. Following the drug treatment regimen, several behaviors were assessed (starting on postnatal day 14) including specific social behaviors (namely, group huddling characteristics, social interaction, and social approach), restrictive/repetitive and stereotyped behaviors (y-maze, repetitive novel object contact task, observation for stereotypies) and anxiety/fear-related responses (open field, elevated plus maze and contextual fear conditioning). Rats treated neonatally with RC-3095 showed reduced sociability, restrictive interests, motor stereotypies and enhanced learned fear response compared to the controls (vehicle-treated rats). These behavioral abnormalities are consistent with those observed in autism spectrum disorders and provide further evidence that neonatal blockade of GRPr could potentially serve as a useful model to gain a better understanding of the underlying neurodevelopmental disruptions contributing to the expression of autism-relevant phenotypes.

The Impact of Early Amygdala Damage on Juvenile Rhesus Macaque Social Behavior

The present experiments continue a longitudinal study of rhesus macaque social behavior following bilateral neonatal ibotenic acid lesions of the amygdala or hippocampus, or sham operations. Juvenile animals (approximately 1.5-2.5 years) were tested in four different social contexts--alone, while interacting with one familiar peer, while interacting with one unfamiliar peer, and in their permanent social groups. During infancy, the amygdala-lesioned animals displayed more interest in conspecifics (indexed by increased affiliative signaling) and paradoxically demonstrated more submission or fear (Bauman, Lavenex, Mason, Capitanio, & Amaral, 2004a, this journal). When these animals were assessed as juveniles, differences were less striking. Amygdala-lesioned animals generated fewer aggressive and affiliative signals (e.g., vocalizations, facial displays) and spent less time in social interactions with familiar peers. When animals were observed alone or with an unfamiliar peer, amygdala-lesioned animals, compared with other subjects, spent more time being inactive and physically explored the environment less. Despite the subtle, lesion-based differences in the frequency and duration of specific social behaviors, there were lesion-based differences in the organization of behavior such that lesion groups could be identified based on the patterning of social behaviors in a discriminant function analysis. The findings indicate that, although overall frequencies of many of the observed behaviors do not differ between groups, the general patterning of social behavior may distinguish the amygdala-lesioned animals.

Reciprocal social behavior in youths with psychotic illness and those at clinical high risk

Youths at clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis typically exhibit significant social dysfunction. However, the specific social behaviors associated with psychosis risk have not been well characterized. We administer the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), a measure of autistic traits that examines reciprocal social behavior, to the parents of 117 adolescents (61 CHR individuals, 20 age-matched adolescents with a psychotic disorder [AOP], and 36 healthy controls) participating in a longitudinal study of psychosis risk. AOP and CHR individuals have significantly elevated SRS scores relative to healthy controls, indicating more severe social deficits. Mean scores for AOP and CHR youths are typical of scores obtained in individuals with high functioning autism (Constantino & Gruber, 2005). SRS scores are significantly associated with concurrent real-world social functioning in both clinical groups. Finally, baseline SRS scores significantly predict social functioning at follow-up (an average of 7.2 months later) in CHR individuals, over and above baseline social functioning measures (p < .009). These findings provide novel information regarding impairments in domains critical for adolescent social development, because CHR individuals and those with overt psychosis show marked deficits in reciprocal social behavior. Further, the SRS predicts subsequent real-world social functioning in CHR youth, suggesting that this measure may be useful for identifying targets of treatment in psychosocial interventions.

Associations between social behaviour and adrenal activity in female Barbary macaques: Consequences of study design

Faecal glucocorticoid metabolite (fGCM) concentrations have been used to evaluate adrenal activity in a variety of species; including as an indicator of the physiological response to social stress. However, across studies, the relationships between dominance rank, social behaviours and adrenal responses can be inconsistent. Differences in the relationship between rank and glucocorticoids may be due to the relative costs of social status, and the relative frequencies of social stressors and potential coping mechanisms. However, the differences in observed relationships between specific social behaviours and glucocorticoids may be partly explained by sampling frequency, as studies often use average fGCM concentrations collected over a period of weeks or months, rather than fGCM concentrations that are temporally-matched with behavioural data. In this study, we directly compared long-term average and temporally-matched data to determine whether particular social behaviours were related to adrenal activity in female Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) at Trentham Monkey Forest, UK; and whether observed relationships were consistent using these two approaches. Average rates of autogrooming were positively correlated with average fGCM; however, this relationship was not robust in temporally-matched samples. Instead, specific social behaviours associated with agonism were associated with fGCM in temporally-matched samples within individuals. These results indicate that analyses of relationships using long-term average fGCM and temporally-matched samples do not necessarily provide comparable results, highlighting that study design is critical in determining associations between an individual’s social behaviour and the relative physiological costs involved.

Attraction and Sex Symbol of Males in the Eyes of Malaysian Male-to-Female Transsexuals

Male-to-female transsexual issues, especially their sexual orientation, has become complicated due to their tendency to regard themselves as women, and are exclusively attracted to men. This paper explores one group in male-to-female transsexuals, which is homosexual transsexuals, and their attraction towards homosexual and heterosexual men. The objective of this paper is to identify aspects of sexual attraction in the body or nature of the men that attract homosexual transsexuals to develop romantic relationship with them. Qualitative methods were used in gathering the data. This includes in-depth interviews that have been carried out on six homosexual transsexuals, which were selected using purposive and snowball sampling. The location of the fieldwork was Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. The result shows that facial appearance, specific body parts such as chest, calves and buttocks, and specific social behaviors, especially caring and affectionate, have been regarded as men's sex symbols.

The CRF system and social behavior: a review

The corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) system plays a key role in a diversity of behaviors accompanying stress, anxiety and depression. There is also substantial research on relationships between social behaviors and the CRF system in a variety of taxa including fish, birds, rodents, and primates. Some of these relationships are due to the broad role of CRF and urocortins in stress and anxiety, but these peptides also modulate social behavior specifically. For example, the social interaction (SI) test is often used to measure anxiety-like behavior. Many components of the CRF system including CRF, urocortin1, and the R1 receptor have been implicated in SI, via general effects on anxiety as well as specific effects depending on the brain region. The CRF system is also highly responsive to chronic social stressors such as social defeat and isolation. Animals exposed to these stressors display a number of anxiety- and stress-related behaviors, accompanied by changes in specific components the CRF system. Although the primary focus of CRF research on social behavior has been on the deleterious effects of social stress, there are also insights on a role for CRF and urocortins in prosocial and affiliative behaviors. The CRF system has been implicated in parental care, maternal defense, sexual behavior, and pair bonding. Species differences in the ligands and CRF receptors have been observed in vole and bird species differing in social behavior. Exogenous administration of CRF facilitates partner preference formation in monogamous male prairie voles, and these effects are dependent on both the CRF R1 and R2 receptors. These findings are particularly interesting as studies have also implicated the CRF and urocortins in social memory. With the rapid progress of social neuroscience and in understanding the complex structure of the CRF system, the next challenge is in parsing the exact contribution of individual components of this system to specific social behaviors.

A theoretical Framework about Leadership perspectives and Leadership styles in the Didactic Room

This paper presents leadership perspectives and leadership styles in the didactic room. The paper problematizes and develops new knowledge concerning the complex and often paradoxical circumstances that characterize teachers’ leadership. The aim is to develop new knowledge about teachers’ leadership perspectives and styles in the didactic room. Our literature review demonstrates a lack of an explicit and unifying concept that encompasses teachers’ various perspectives and behavioral styles in the didactic room. The meaning of the concept “perspective” precedes the implementation of an individual style of leadership by promoting alternative overviews that the teacher can use, depending on the context, situated activity/task, and student. Any style of leadership will then refer to a specific social behavior. Our result shows that using conscious didactic action skills, teachers can act more effectively and qualitatively better approach new and unpredictable problem situations. Keywords: Didactic, Leadership, Pedagogic, Perspective, Style

Hepatitis C Prevalence Among Iranian Female prisoners

Dear Editor, We read with interest the recent report by Nokhodian et al. based on prevalence and risk factors of sexually transmitted infections including hepatitis C infection among female prisoners in Isfahan (1). The researchers successfully presented a picture of the current situation in the prevalence of such important factors in a selected group with specific social behaviors and risk factors. Hepatitis C virus is one of the important causes of hepatitis worldwide. It is also a major cause of cirrhosis and end stage of liver disease (2). Hence reporting the prevalence and its related risk factors in any community is of great importance. Prisoners, as a group with high risk behaviors are at a major risk of being affected with such an infection. Specifically IV drug abusers or those with illegal sex behaviors are among major groups at risk. The article by Nokhodian et al. is successful in presenting a true scenario of what already exists in our prisons in Iran, although their report of the rate of prevalence of HCV infection is very far from other reports from western countries. The prevalence of HCV infection in prisons in Ireland and United States have been reported to be 37% and 34.3%, respectively (3, 4) which is significantly higher than what is reported from Isfahan (7.4%). Both the latter reports emphasized the role of IV drug abuse and high risk sexual behaviors among the prisoners, which is similar to the results by Nokhodian and coworkers; however the reason for the great difference between the HCV prevalence in our prisoners in comparsion with their western counterparts is not determined yet. Although cultural differences that lead to more limited sexual behavior and drug abuse in our community can be a major reason, one other possible reason can be the different sex distribution among the prisoners. In the Iranian article all the prisoners were women (163) in whom IV drug abuse is usually lower than men, while in the Irish report only a small part of the participants (57 out of 1205) were women. This male dominancy may lead to the higher HCV prevalence among those prisoners. Educational programs play a crucial role in creating insight and decreasing the rate of HCV transmission in prisoners. Nokhodian and colleagues recommended that educational programs should be implemented in prison population to decrease the hazardous effects of such infections. Their suggestion regarding the crucial role of training and educational program in patients affected with hepatitis C infection is in agreement with report of La Torre and coworkers who also believe that educational programs can reduce the spread of such an infection (5). In a similar recent study in Isfahan (In press) on patients who had been referred to correctional facilities, we found a similar effect for education compared to Nokhodian' study. Although some of our patients were naturally different from the selected female prisoners with the aforementioned risk factors, the setting of both of our studies was Isfahan with an identical geographical, as well as sociodemographic and cultural pattern. We found that patients with HCV infection will be more informative regarding the nature and risk factors of hepatitis C after effective education. The information level of our patients rose from 11.9 ± 5.3 (before training) to 18 ± 3.13 (after training), which was statistically significant. While only 16.5% of our patients had excellent information about the disease before the educational program, this figure rose to 77.5% after the program which shows a prominent improvement after the educational intervention. Overall the serious hazardous effect of HCV infection warrants appropriate management to reduce its life threatening side effects. Educational measuringes should be the main focus of such a management. By increasing the information level of individuals at risk, more resources are saved and less national budget, which is currently used to treat such patients, can be reserved.

Social communication in young children with traumatic brain injury: Relations with corpus callosum morphometry

The purpose of the present investigation was to characterize the relations of specific social communication behaviors, including joint attention, gestures, and verbalization, with surface area of midsagittal corpus callosum (CC) subregions in children who sustained traumatic brain injury (TBI) before 7 years of age. Participants sustained mild (n=10) or moderate–severe (n=26) noninflicted TBI. The mean age at injury was 33.6 months; mean age at MRI was 44.4 months. The CC was divided into seven subregions. Relative to young children with mild TBI, those with moderate–severe TBI had smaller surface area of the isthmus. A semi-structured sequence of social interactions between the child and an examiner was videotaped and coded for specific social initiation and response behaviors. Social responses were similar across severity groups. Even though the complexity of their language was similar, children with moderate–severe TBI used more gestures than those with mild TBI to initiate social overtures; this may indicate a developmental lag or deficit as the use of gestural communication typically diminishes after age 2. After controlling for age at scan and for total brain volume, the correlation of social interaction response and initiation scores with the midsagittal surface area of the CC regions was examined. For the total group, responding to a social overture using joint attention was significantly and positively correlated with surface area of all regions, except the rostrum. Initiating joint attention was specifically and negatively correlated with surface area of the anterior midbody. Use of gestures to initiate a social interaction correlated significantly and positively with surface area of the anterior and posterior midbody. Social response and initiation behaviors were selectively related to regional callosal surface areas in young children with TBI. Specific brainbehavior relations indicate early regional specialization of anterior and posterior CC for social communication.

Early-emerging social adaptive skills in toddlers with autism spectrum disorders: an item analysis.

Individuals with ASD have significant impairments in adaptive skills, particularly adaptive socialization skills. The present study examined the extent to which 20 items from the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales-Socialization Domain differentiated between ASD and developmentally delayed (DD) groups. Participants included 108 toddlers with ASD or DD under the age of 3years. Nine of the 20 items significantly distinguished the groups. The ASD group demonstrated significantly weaker socialization skills, including deficits in basic social behaviors. The results support the notion that (a) socialization deficits in ASD impact foundational social skills typically emerging in the first year of life, (b) examination of specific social adaptive behaviors contribute to differential diagnosis, and (c) foundational social behaviors should be targeted for intervention.

Disconnected and underproductive speech in schizophrenia: Unique relationships across multiple indicators of social functioning

Background Cognitive deficits and communication abnormalities are central features of schizophrenia. Although cognition is a robust predictor of adaptive functioning, recent evidence suggests that communication abnormalities better predict social functioning. Methods In 90 community-dwelling individuals with schizophrenia, we examined the contribution of two subtypes of communication disorder (disconnected speech and verbal underproductivity) to three interrelated but independent domains of social functioning: performance-based social competence, observer-rated social behavior, and self-reported quality of life (QOL). Using stepwise regression analyses, we examined the predictive value of disconnected speech and verbal underproductivity while simultaneously considering neurocognitive, clinical, and course of illness variables. Results Regression analyses demonstrated robust relationships of communication abnormalities with measures of social functioning even when accounting for neurocognition, clinical symptoms, and course of illness. When examining real-world behavior, observer-rated social behavior was predicted by verbal underproductivity, whereas socially acceptable behavior was predicted by neurocognition and disconnected speech. Greater impairment in self-reported social quality of life was predicted by verbal underproductivity and neurocognition. Furthermore, there was an apparent differential deficit in the two scenes of the performance-based social competence task as a function of communication abnormality symptom (i.e., disconnected and verbally underproductive speech). Conclusion Discrete communication abnormalities are differentially associated with specific social competencies and behaviors; as such, they may be considered treatment targets to improve social functioning.

Emotional and Social Behaviors Elicited by Electrical Stimulation of the Insula in the Macaque Monkey

Evidence from a large number of brain imaging studies has shown that, in humans, the insula, and especially its anterior part, is involved in emotions and emotion recognition. Typically, however, these studies revealed that, besides the insula, a variety of other cortical and subcortical areas are also active. Brain imaging studies are correlative in nature, and, as such, they cannot give indications about the necessary contribution of the different centers involved in emotions. In the present study, we aimed to define more clearly the role of the insula in emotional and social behavior of the monkey by stimulating it electrically. Using this technique, one may determine whether direct activation of the insula can produce specific emotional or social behaviors and exactly which parts of this structure are responsible for these behaviors. The results showed that two emotional behaviors, a basic one (disgust) and a social one (affiliative state), were easily elicited by electrical stimulation of specific parts of the insula. Both behaviors were characterized by specific motor and vegetative responses and by a dramatic change in the monkey's responsiveness to external stimuli.

Context–specific social behavior is altered by orbitofrontal cortex lesions in adult rhesus macaques

Although the orbitofrontal cortex has been implicated in important aspects of social behavior, few studies have evaluated semi-naturalistic social behavior in nonhuman primates after discrete lesions of this cortical area. In the present report, we evaluated the behavior of adult rhesus monkeys during dyadic social interactions with novel animals following discrete lesions of the orbitofrontal cortex. In a constrained condition, in which animals could engage in only restricted social behaviors, there were no significant differences in social behavior between the lesion group and the sham-operated control group. When the experimental animals could freely interact with partner animals, however, lesioned animals differed from control animals in terms of social interest and fear-related behaviors. These alterations were contingent on the partner with which they interacted. The lesioned animals, when compared to the control animals, had a significantly greater propensity to approach some but not all of their social partners. They also grimaced more towards the partner animal that they did not approach. Behavioral alterations were more apparent during the initial interactions between animals. We discuss these findings in relation to the role of the orbitofrontal cortex in context dependent modulation of social behavior.

Multigroup Construct Validity Evidence of the HOPE Scale: Instrumentation to Identify Low-Income Elementary Students for Gifted Programs

Students with exceptional academic potential who come from low-income families are frequently not identified for and consequently are underrepresented in gifted and talented programs. Because of this, new means of identifying such children must be developed. This article presents the findings of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses conducted on the HOPE Scale, a 13-item teacher-rating instrument designed to identify academic and social components of giftedness in elementary-aged students. Participants included 349 teachers who completed HOPE Scales on 5,995 ethnically and economically diverse students from three rural and two metropolitan school districts in the Midwest. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis was also used to evaluate measurement invariance between income groups. Findings suggest a two-factor model represents good fit for the data while remaining loyal to the latent constructs of academic and social giftedness. Although showing some legitimate mean differences, invariance test results suggested equivalence of model form, factor loading, and factor variances across income groups. Putting the Research to Use This research has important implications for practice. Frequently, traditional measures of achievement or aptitude under-identify children from low-income families. Concerns exist about the usefulness of teacher-ratings forms or scales in gifted and talented student identification. However, when given specific items or descriptors, teachers can provide useful information concerning student performance. The HOPE Scale provides items that teachers can use to rate specific social and academic behaviors of their students. Findings from this study revealed that teaches can effectively nominate low-income students for gifted programs. Further, items on the HOPE Scale were not biased against low-income students as rated by their teachers, meaning that the social and academic scales provided similar information concerning students in either income group. However, mean scores for student from low-income families on both scales were lower than their non-low income peers, providing evidence that instruments need to be normed on the specific groups for which their use is intended. Practitioners, should not shy away from using teacher nomination instruments, but they should consider the psychometric information available concerning the use of these instruments or rating forms as used with students in demographic groups of intended use. The HOPE Scale, as developed with indicated revisions, will provide educators and researchers with a simple, psychometrically sound instrument to help with identification of underrepresented student for gifted education services.

Relative importance of body composition, osteoporosis-related behaviors, and parental income on bone speed of sound in adolescent females

Adolescence provides a unique opportunity to employ strategies aimed at optimizing peak bone mass yet there are limited studies on the relationship between specific social constructs, osteoporosis-related behaviors, and bone health status in adolescent females. The purpose of this study was to examine associations between bone speed of sound (SOS) and body composition, osteoporosis-related health behaviors, and parental income in adolescent females. Four hundred forty-two female students in grades 9-12 from schools in Southern Ontario, Canada were measured for height, body mass, and percent body fat and completed a battery of instruments to assess osteoporosis-related health behaviors. Bone SOS was measured by transaxial quantitative ultrasound at the distal radius and midtibia. Percent body fat was a negative correlate of tibial SOS. No significant correlation was found between physical activity and bone SOS yet physical activity was negatively related to adiposity. Hierarchical regression showed that age and percent body fat were the most important predictors of the variance in tibial SOS scores, with calcium intake having a weaker, yet significant, relationship. Age was the only statistically significant predictor of radial SOS. Users of oral contraceptives had higher radial SOS when controlling for age. Higher parental income was not associated with bone SOS but positive associations between parental income, daily calcium intake, and weekly physical activity were noted. Bone SOS is reduced in adolescent females with increased adiposity, whereas it is positively influenced by oral contraceptives and daily calcium intake.