Test Anxiety in Autistic University Students-Preliminary Results from a German-Speaking Sample.

Alafia Zavery,Alex Bertrams,Myriam Zäch

doi:10.3390/brainsci11030390

Abstract

Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition associated with increased levels of anxiety. However, whether autism is related to heightened test anxiety as one situation-specific type of anxiety has not yet been examined. This question may be relevant for the achievement and well-being of autistic people in educational settings (e.g., at universities). In this study, we took a first step to investigate whether autistic university students have increased test anxiety. A sample of 16 German-speaking university students completed an established diagnostic instrument to measure test anxiety and its components of worry, emotionality, cognitive interference, and lack of confidence. The scores of the autistic students were compared with the test anxiety means and percentile ranks of the standardization sample for the applied test anxiety measure (n = 1350). For an additional comparison, the test anxiety means and percentile ranks of non-autistic university students (n = 101) were assessed during the last third of the semester; that is, close to the examinations. Overall, the results suggest that autistic university students have remarkably increased test anxiety. Although the present findings must be considered preliminary, they suggest that text anxiety in educational settings may be a neglected significant problem for autistic people that requires further attention in research and practice.

Highlights

Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition that is defined by (a) difficulties in the culturally common forms of social interaction and communication and (b) restrictive and repetitive behaviors [1]
Test anxiety was significantly higher in the autistic university student sample than in the standardization sample and the 2020 close-to-examination sample
The aim of this study was to examine whether test anxiety is increased in Germanspeaking autistic university students

Summary

Introduction

Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition that is defined by (a) difficulties in the culturally common forms of social interaction and communication and (b) restrictive and repetitive behaviors [1]. Studies have revealed that individuals on the autism spectrum show increased levels of anxiety (e.g., social anxiety [2]), corresponding to the fact that people on the autism spectrum have a higher susceptibility to anxiety at the neuronal level [3]. Research in the field of autism has been conducted intensively in recent years and could result in diverse findings regarding test anxiety. The link between these two research areas is novel and relevant for the educational–psychological field

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Conclusion