Perspectives of Former Students with ASD from Australia and New Zealand on Their University Experience

Coping Mechanisms Among Youth and Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Competitive Employment

“…In regard to emotion-focused coping approaches, one study found that university students with ASD coped by taking frequent extended breaks and changing their school disciplines towards their interests [247]. These results parallel the results in this study as some participants used emotion-focused coping (e.g., distractibility) to reduce negative emotions and feelings related to stress.…”

“…However, there are studies that discuss coping in relation to everyday activities (e.g., everyday life and school-related experiences). For instance, one study looking at university experiences of students with ASD found that students coped by knowing their limitations (e.g., part-time enrolment in school) [247]. Similar to knowing one's limitations as a form of coping, in this study, quitting a job related to a form of problem-focused coping.…”

“…Problem-focused coping incites a positive outlook towards a problem, which is a crucial intermediary between traits related to ASD and anxiety symptoms [258,259]. Unlike problem-focused coping, people with ASD may use pushing through to overwork themselves and as a result may ignore indicators that they need to take a break [247]. In the literature, other strategies define pushing through as suppression (e.g., suppressing emotional expression), which has been shown to increase negative emotions [124,260,261].…”

Burnt Out and Dropping Out: A Comparison of the Experiences of Autistic and Non-autistic Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Interestingly, we found no difference in coping styles between autistic and non-autistic students, which could indicate that there are few differences in the ways these students cope with stress. Alternatively, it could be that we missed some of the different coping strategies used by autistic people ( Muniandy et al, 2021 ) – in an interview study, Anderson et al (2020) identified “working hard,” “part-time enrolment,” “extended breaks,” “changing discipline,” and “camouflaging” as strategies former autistic students had used to cope at university. Given the high levels of mental health challenges, burnout, and thoughts about dropping out, further research on the coping strategies of autistic students would be useful so that we can better understand how these students can be best supported to cope with the pressures of university life.…”

“… Cage and Howes (2020) carried out semi-structured interviews with 14 autistic people who had dropped out of university in the United Kingdom, identifying systemic, societal issues that related to the participants’ decision to drop out, as well as challenges within the university environment, such as feelings of culture shock, disengagement with their studies, and experiencing a lack of proactive support. Anderson et al (2020) interviewed 11 autistic students from Australia and New Zealand, of whom three had not completed their degree. The reasons they had withdrawn related to poor mental and physical health, sensory challenges, low motivation for the degree subject, and lack of support.…”