Evaluating the Role of Autistic Traits, Social Anxiety, and Social Network Changes During Transition to First Year of University in Typically Developing Students and Students on the Autism Spectrum

Abstract

This is the first longitudinal study to quantitatively evaluate changes in social network structure (SNS) and perceived social support (PSS) amongst first-year students on the autism spectrum (n = 21) and typically developing (TD; n = 182) students transitioning to university. The relative impact of changes in SNS/PSS, students' social anxiety and autistic traits, on firstyear university transition outcomes were also examined. Both groups gained friends over time who provided better support quantity and quality during first year of university. Social anxiety showed long-term differential negative impact on students on the autism spectrum and TD students' academic, social and personal/emotional adjustments, and institutional attachment, suggesting stakeholders should focus on delivering interventions to reduce social anxiety to improve university transition outcomes.

Exploring the Cognitive Model of Social Anxiety in Autistic Young People—The Central Role of Bodily Symptoms

“…SAS-A has excellent internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.92) and modest test–retest reliability ( r = 0.60) (Storch et al, 2004 ). The SAS-A has been used with autistic adolescents (Lei et al, 2019 , 2020 ), and internal consistency in the current study was good (Cronbach’s α = 0.88).…”

“…SAS-A has excellent internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.92) and modest test–retest reliability ( r = 0.60) (Storch et al, 2004 ). The SAS-A has been used with autistic adolescents (Lei et al, 2019 , 2020 ), and internal consistency in the current study was good (Cronbach’s α = 0.88). Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN, Connor et al, 2000 ) The SPIN is a 17-item questionnaire assessing social anxiety with three sub-scales: fear, avoidance and physiological sensations.…”

Associations Between Autism Symptomatology, Alexithymia, Trait Emotional Intelligence, and Adjustment to College

“…Nevertheless, Frazier et al (2014) found that the SRS-2 exhibited measurement invariance across age, sex, and reporter (self vs. others). Others have used this sampling strategy to include individuals that may not have received a formal diagnosis of ASD but score above threshold on one or more self-report measures of ASD symptomatology (e.g., Trevisan and Birmingham, 2016 ; Dijkhuis et al, 2020 ; Lei et al, 2020 ). It has also been suggested that the SRS-2 may be capturing symptoms of other conditions, such as elevated levels of anxiety ( South et al, 2017 ).…”

“…Thus, women are often under-represented in studies on autism, particularly those studies with high-functioning individuals ( Hull et al, 2020 ). Others have used a similar strategy to examine how symptoms associated with ASD impact functioning, regardless of diagnosis (e.g., Trevisan and Birmingham, 2016 ; Dijkhuis et al, 2020 ; Lei et al, 2020 ). With this information in mind, the following research questions were addressed:…”

Support for Higher Education Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…Ten scripted lessons were used during the intervention, and a multiple baseline across participants design was used to assess the effects of the learning strategy intervention. All three students improved in the quality of their writing Lei et al (2020). evaluated changes in social network structure and perceived social support among first-year students with the ASD (n = 21) and typically developed (n = 182) the first-year students in their transition to the university.Both groups gained friends who provided better support during the first year of university over time.…”