Exploring the impact of school belonging on camouflaging and anxiety in autistic students through their voices

Abstract

The prevalence of autistic students in schools is continuously increasing. Typically, the social and sensory differences associated with autism can make the school environment difficult to manage. Autistic students are more likely to experience mental health difficulties and have poorer academic outcomes than their neurotypical peers. It is therefore important to listen to autistic people about their educational experiences and explore ways that the environment could be changed to reduce anxiety. Chapter one provides further context to the current research including reference to outcomes for autistic students and the wider state of current autism research. Ethical and epistemological issues are also considered, reflecting on both strengths and limitations of the approaches taken. A systematic literature review (Chapter two) has been conducted to explore the experiences of autistic students in primary school. Twenty-two studies met the inclusion criteria and have been analysed using thematic synthesis. Four analytical themes (‘We all have different experiences of school’, ‘Understand and listen to me – I don’t want to look weird’, ‘Social connection is important – I want to be treated like a human’, and ‘Success matters but environment is key’) were generated. Overall, students in the review felt that everybody needs to learn more about autism, as well as providing specific and subtle support based on individual need. Further implications for practice are discussed. The empirical paper (Chapter three) explores whether the relationship between school belonging and anxiety in secondary-aged autistic students is mediated by camouflaging. An anonymous online survey was completed by 72 autistic students attending mainstream schools in the UK and Ireland. The survey included questionnaires about school belonging (simple sense of belonging scale), anxiety (ASC-ASD) and camouflaging traits (CAT-Q). Further, the survey included open-ended questions about environmental factors related to school belonging and camouflaging. The results found that, as predicted, camouflaging did mediate the relationship between school belonging and anxiety. Qualitative content analysis was used to interpret answers to open ended questions, and categories were created for each question. Overall, it was found that social relationships; individual factors; the environment and adaptations, and acceptance and understanding, influence students’ sense of belonging. Implications, limitations, and avenues for future research are discussed.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Elizabeth Kate Atkinson: orcid.org/0009-0006-5152-0964

ORCID for Henry Wood-Downie: orcid.org/0000-0003-4965-7778

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