Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder in the University Context: Peer Acceptance Predicts Intention to Volunteer

Abstract

With growing numbers of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) entering post-secondary institutions, strategies are needed to facilitate the social integration of these students. The goal of this study was to examine the role of various factors in university students’ acceptance of, and intention to volunteer with, a peer with ASD. Both contact quantity and quality emerged as significant predictors of acceptance; however, for those who had experienced direct contact with individuals with ASD, only perceived quality emerged as significant. Moreover, acceptance played a significant role in participants’ likelihood of signing up to volunteer. These findings point to the central role that positive experiences play in attitude formation for this population.

Whose Expertise Is It? Evidence for Autistic Adults as Critical Autism Experts

“…Studies conducted with college students have revealed more knowledge about (Tipton and Blacher, 2014) and less stigma (assessed with a Social Distance Scale) toward autistic people among a small number of participants who indicated that they had nuclear relatives who were autistic and/or who were autistic themselves (Gillespie-Lynch et al, 2015). Other research with college students similarly finds greater willingness to interact with (Nevill and White, 2011) or more positive attitudes toward (White et al, 2016) autistic peers among those with an autistic relative or personal contact, with further findings that the quality rather than quantity of direct contact plays a decisive role in acceptance of an autistic peer (Gardiner and Iarocci, 2014). White et al (2016) reported that those who knew an autistic person less often identified observable behaviors such as lack of eye contact in connection with autism, which they suggested might indicate that with personal experience people may find that autistic individuals do not all conform to stereotypes.…”

“…This research, typically conducted with non-autistic college students, has found that greater knowledge of autism and high-quality personal connections with autism coincide with lower stigma toward autism (Nevill and White, 2011; Gardiner and Iarocci, 2014; Gillespie-Lynch et al, 2015; White et al, 2016). A much smaller but growing body of research has examined how autistic people think about autism, including their evaluations of how it is currently represented and researched (e.g., Kapp et al, 2013; Pellicano et al, 2014a,b; Jones et al, 2015; Kenny et al, 2016; Fletcher-Watson et al, 2017).…”

Evaluation of a Transition to University Programme for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…The increasing social demands at university can be particularly challenging for autistic young people not only due to their social communication difficulties Knott and Taylor 2014;Longtin 2014;Ward and Webster 2018), but also because they often need to navigate the social scene more independently, without the support of their family. Although many autistic students recognise that socialisation with both peers and faculty staff at university is often necessary as part of the academic course and daily life, students often find such interactions exhausting (Van Hees et al 2015), and can often misinterpret social information as well as being misunderstood by other people due to their social communication deficits (Gardiner and Iarocci 2014;Gelbar et al 2014;Gobbo and Shmulsky 2014).…”

Employability for UK University Students and Graduates on the Autism Spectrum: Mobilities and Materialities

“…In the United States, studies suggest that up to 45% of the approximately 550,000 autistic children who will be transitioning into adulthood over the next decade are expected to enrol in a university, college, or technical/vocational school (Jackson, Hart & Volkmar 2018). Increased numbers of university students disclosing autism diagnoses have also been reported in Sweden (Adolfsson & Simmeborn-Fleischer 2015), Australia (Hamilton, Stevens & Girdler 2016;Mulder & Cashin 2014), and Canada (Gardiner & Iarocci 2014). However, despite the international trends in autistic participation in higher education, there is a distinct paucity of published research that examines what happens next for this group.…”