The Anxiety Caused by Secondary Schools for Autistic Adolescents: In Their Own Words

Debra Costley,Anne Emerson,Danielle Ropar,Elizabeth Sheppard

doi:10.3390/educsci11110726

Abstract

Secondary schools are increasingly becoming inclusive of all students whatever their individual needs, but we question whether teachers understand enough about specific needs in order to effectively support all their students. Research indicates that autistic students often struggle with aspects of school (conformity; social communication; sensory challenges; bullying) but very few studies ask autistic adolescents about their experiences. One of the key elements of the school experience for autistic adolescents is the levels of anxiety experienced by many students on a daily basis. This research set out to explore the extent to which autistic students in secondary schools in the UK were able to recognise and reflect on their own anxiety. The eighteen participants in this co-produced qualitative study took part in semi-structured interviews planned by a team of autistic and non-autistic researchers. The themes that emerged from this study, in terms of triggers for anxiety, included other people’s behaviour, fear of the unknown, and sensory sensitivities. A theoretical view of their difficulties concurs with the concept of intolerance of uncertainty. Our data suggest that autistic students continue to experience high levels of anxiety throughout their secondary education, despite supports put in place by some schools. Strategies are highlighted that could be implemented by all schools to promote truly inclusive settings.

Highlights

This paper reports on school-based anxiety through personal accounts by autistic adolescents, designed through a participatory research process with a group of autistic co-researchers
This research was a co-produced project with a group of autistic and non-autistic co-researchers so that we had an idea of some of the key issues relating to anxiety before we went into schools, and had focussed the questions to try to elicit the most valid data in a short period of time
What we found was that all of the young people were able to talk about their experiences of anxiety

Summary

Introduction

This paper reports on school-based anxiety through personal accounts by autistic adolescents, designed through a participatory research process with a group of autistic co-researchers. Previous studies [2,3] have focused on the transition period from primary to secondary school suggesting that this represents a significantly difficult time, once students had time to adjust, problems may diminish Focusing on this point in time we examined the school experiences of young people aged 12–17 years. In Kuusikko et al [8], autistic children reported an increase in social anxiety as they got older in contrast to their neurotypical peers where it typically decreased, supporting a view of anxiety being experienced differently. They found a clinically relevant link between autism/Asperger’s and social anxiety symptoms. This makes it an important area of focus, when seen from the student’s perspective

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