An electronic survey about college experiences after traumatic brain injury

Abstract

For many with traumatic brain injury (TBI), going to college is a realistic goal; however there is little documentation of the challenges faced by those with TBI who attend college. The primary purposes of this study were to document the academic challenges (studying, in-class experiences, time management, psychosocial aspects) reported by adults with TBI, and to investigate relationships between these challenges and the physical, cognitive and psychosocial consequences of TBI. An electronic anonymous survey was distributed. Of the 35 respondents with TBI, nearly all reported the need to review material more and a majority reported that others do not understand their problems. In-class experiences of being nervous before tests, forgetting what is said in class, and getting overwhelmed in class were also reported by a majority. Those who reported more physical, cognitive and psychosocial consequences of their injury also identified more academic challenges as well, although cognitive consequences alone predicted academic challenges better than all of the consequences combined. Psychosocial aspects also predicted academic challenges to a lesser extent. In spite of these findings, nearly half of the respondents had not heard of or had never accessed campus disability services. To develop effective on-campus service delivery models, additional research is needed to understand why students do or do not make use of existing services.