Abstract
The number of university students with autism is increasing, and it is crucial that these students can access adequate support. An online questionnaire was completed by 26 autistic students and 158 non-autistic students enrolled at UK universities to investigate social and academic experiences. Autistic students self-reported significant challenges and more mental health difficulties than non-autistic students. Significant challenges focused on the social components of university life, including social skills, social support opportunities, and levels of ASD awareness from others. Many strengths were also reported regarding academic skills of autistic university students. Importantly, there were more thoughts of withdrawal by the students with autism highlighting the need for support. These data can inform university student support services.
Highlights
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) are complex neurodevelopmental disorders with lifelong impacts on social communication, alongside the presence of repetitive and restrictive behaviours (American Psychiatric Association 2013)
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders (2019) 49:617–631 widespread social challenges and increased mental health concerns, with a further emphasize on the lack of support targeted towards non-academic issues (Gelbar et al 2014; Anderson et al 2017b; Jansen et al 2018)
The reported social challenges could be related to the core deficits associated with ASD and it is important to interpret the findings within a wider conceptual theoretical framework of autism (Gobbo and Shmulsky 2014)
Summary
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) are complex neurodevelopmental disorders with lifelong impacts on social communication, alongside the presence of repetitive and restrictive behaviours (American Psychiatric Association 2013). The number of students with autism completing a higher education qualification is increasing; in the US the number of autistic students at University is between 0.7 and 1.9% of the student population (White et al 2011) and in the UK rates are reported slightly higher having increased from 1.8% in 2004 to 2.4% of the student population in 2008 (Macleod and Green 2009) These numbers are expected to have increased even further since these data became available and there is a timely need to consider the specific requirements of autistic students (Friedman et al 2013). Depression and anxiety are reported as the most common mental health challenges for young adults with autism (Lugnegard et al 2011; Volkmar et al 2017) and these could be seen as both a consequence and a contributor to the issues noted above (Accardo 2017)
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