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This research indicates females with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) have a diverse clinical presentation compared to males. Furthermore, females with ASD are often diagnosed later and typically experience greater levels of mental health difficulties. Evidence suggests that clinic-based verbal interventions for ASD have limited efficacy; therefore, alternative therapies, such as equine-assisted therapies (EATs), are gaining recognition. The purpose of this study was to directly explore the experiences of females with an ASD who have undertaken EAT.

Five female participants with a diagnosis of ASD were recruited from two equine therapy centres. Participants were aged between 15 and 30 years and undertook semi-structured interviews, which were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis.

Three superordinate themes emerged: the difficult experience of the social world, the process of EAT and the emotional impact of horses.

Directly exploring the experiences of females with ASD highlights benefits from engaging therapeutically with horses, building confidence and independence to transferring this into more effective social communication with other people. Offering emotion-focused therapeutic complementary interventions for females with ASD should be forefronted to help remediate the impact of difficult and sometimes traumatic earlier experiences in the social world. This requires increased funding for EAT, combined with larger-scale research projects to evaluate this.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of critical friendship on a first- and last-year doctoral student’s novice and expert mindsets during role transitions. Doctoral students are challenged to navigate role transitions during their academic programs. Experiences in research expectations, academy acculturation and work-life balance, may impact doctoral students’ novice-expert mindsets and contribute to the costly problem of attrition. Universities offer generic doctoral support, but few support sources address the long-term self-directed nature of self-study.

The authors participated in a collaborative self-study over a 30-month period. The authors collected 35 personal shared journal entries and 12 recorded and transcribed discussions. The authors conducted a constant comparative analysis of the data, and individually and collaboratively coded the data for initial and focused codes to construct themes.

The critical friendship provided a safe space to explore the doctoral experiences and novice-expert mindsets, which the authors were not fully able to do with programmatic support alone. The authors identified nine specific strategies that positively impacted the novice-expert mindsets during the following role transitions: professional to student, student to graduate and graduate to professional.

While researchers have identified strategies and models for doctoral student support targeting specific milestones, this study identified strategies to support doctoral students’ novice-expert mindsets during role transitions. These strategies may benefit other graduate students, as well as faculty and program directors, as they work to support student completion.

This study aims to further investigate the relationship between perceived adherence to gender norms and binge drinking in college students. Thus, researchers examined college students’ perceptions of adherence to masculine and feminine gender norms when gender and alcohol consumption of a vignette character were manipulated.

Undergraduate participants (N = 368) were randomly assigned to one of four vignette conditions: female moderate drinker, female binge drinker, male moderate drinker, male binge drinker and then surveyed regarding perceptions of the vignette character.

The results of this study indicate that there are significant relationships between the vignette character’s alcohol consumption and perceived adherence to feminine gender norms. The character’s gender, as well as the participant’s own alcohol consumption patterns, also related to perceived adherence to feminine gender norms.

College students’ perceptions of binge drinkers are influenced by gender norms, which has important implications for safe consumption of alcohol. When young men (or young women) are encouraged to drink to avoid appearing too feminine, negative consequences may be more likely. In this study, perceptions of the vignette character’s safety were also found to be related to alcohol consumption of the vignette character, as well as the alcohol consumption of the participant, suggesting that a heavy drinker might not show as much concern for another’s heavy consumption.

This paper aims to discuss stakeholders’ understanding of sustainable tourism development and their experiences regarding the contribution of these movements to sustainable tourism development. The contribution of the Slow Food and Cittaslow Movements to the success of a tourism destination is evaluated by determining local stakeholders’ perceptions of the meaning of these terms and views on their benefits.

A case study approach used semi-structured interviews to collect data from 11 purposively sampled local stakeholders. The interview questions spanned knowledge, membership and perceived benefits of the Slow Food and Cittaslow Movements and the contribution of these Movements to sustainable tourism development. The data were analysed using framework analysis.

Varying levels of familiarity with the Slow Food and Cittaslow Movements were evident. Clear economic and personal benefits from membership were acknowledged. It was confirmed that the Slow Food and Cittaslow Movements have contributed to sustainable tourism development and that public–private partnership is key to its success.

The specific research context and limited purposive sample suggest great caution in any generalisation of the results.

Close and continued involvement of stakeholders plus membership of the Slow Food and Cittaslow Movements can contribute strongly to promoting sustainable tourism development in rural areas.

It is recognised that the Slow Food and Cittaslow Movements make a substantial contribution to local economies and add value to sustainable practices.

Involving local stakeholders in public–private partnerships can contribute to the success of rural tourism destinations when the Slow Food and Cittaslow Movements are considered as alternative approaches to sustainable tourism development.

Purpose – This chapter explores the use of music and celebrity endorsements in political campaigns of the United States. It focuses on two aspects: (1) the legality of a political campaign’s use of music at rallies and in advertisements without authorization from the owner of the musical work and (2) a review of the literature on the potential effect of the use of music in political campaigns on voter behavior.

Design/methodology/approach – A brief history of the use of music in political campaigns precedes an examination of the expansion of copyright law protection for music and the legal claims musicians may raise against the unauthorized use of music by political campaigns. The chapter then reviews the potential effect of political campaigns’ use of music and celebrity endorsements on voter behavior.

Findings – A musician’s primary legal protection falls under copyright law, but the courts disagree on whether the unauthorized use of music at political rallies and in political campaign advertisements results in copyright infringement. Social research suggests music and celebrity endorsements affect voter behavior with a likely greater effect on first-time voters.

Originality/value of chapter – This chapter introduces the complicated application of copyright law to the unauthorized use of musical works by political campaigns. Additionally, it notes the limited research on the effect of music and celebrity endorsements on voter behavior even as political campaigns increasingly target niche demographics with specific music selections to motivate voters to vote.