Autistic college students face higher rates of anxiety and depression

As autism diagnoses continue to grow and remain a topic of nationwide debate, new research reveals that autistic individuals are facing mental health challenges at a major turning point in their lives – when they go to college.

According to a new study led by researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York, autistic college students face dramatically higher rates of anxiety and depression compared to their non-autistic peers. 

Psychologists at Binghamton University examined data from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), which included 342 universities and 149,783 undergraduate student respondents. Of the questions posed, students can report being autistic and also whether or not they have a diagnosis of anxiety or depression. The researchers analyzed the data to determine the rate of anxiety and depression for those who also reported being autistic. 

What we found is really staggering – autistic individuals endorse much higher rates of anxiety and depression compared to their non-autistic peers."

Diego Aragon-Guevara, lead author on the paper and PhD student in psychology at Binghamton

Aragon-Guevara, whose main research focus is improving the quality of life for autistic adults, said that autistic college students are an underrepresented, under-researched population.

"We wanted to sort of fill that gap in the research and find out how they are doing," he said. "What are some challenges that they're having, specifically around mental health, since mental health in college is really such an important topic," he said. 

2021 marked the first year that autism was an endorsable category in the survey. According to paper co-author Jennifer Gillis Mattson, that added representation allows researchers to more readily conduct research on autistic students and compare them with their non-autistic peers. 

"We were really excited to see what the data would tell us. It was a big opportunity to be able to do this," said Mattson, professor of psychology and co-director of the Institute for Child Development at Binghamton University. 

The study highlights the need for more mental health support for autistic students, said the researchers. 

"We want to provide the best support for them and to make sure that they have a college experience, where they get a lot out of it, but also feel comfortable," said Aragon-Guevara.

For example, support personnel might address an individual's autism and, in the process, overlook their mental health issues. More care needs to be put into addressing that nuance, said Gillis-Mattson.

"We're shedding some light on the fact that if you have autistic college students in your college population – and we know the number of autistic college students continues to increase every single year – then we really do have an obligation to support these students," said Gillis-Mattson. "And to know how best to support these students and we need to look beyond just autism, if you will. That there are these other mental health conditions, such as anxiety or depression, where people need to be able to acknowledge and understand that additional supports may be needed."

Aragon-Guevara said that this new research is a starting point - confirmation that there is an issue regarding mental health in autistic college students. The researchers next want to identify the specific factors that influence these mental health challenges, whether it's social dynamics, support from faculty, accessibility, etc. 

"There are so many elements that go into being comfortable in the new environment that is college, so we want to look into that and see if there are any deficits in those areas that autistic college students are experiencing, so that we know where we can help support them, or create institutional things to help improve quality of life as a whole," said Aragon-Guevara.

This study is part of a broader research effort at Binghamton to better understand and support autistic students in higher education. Hyejung Kim, an assistant professor in the Department of Teaching, Learning and Educational Leadership, noted that there is still much to explore about this population. 

"This population often skews male, and interactions between personal factors and conditions such as anxiety and depression may shape overall well-being in college, an area that warrants further study," she said. "Autistic students are also more likely to pursue STEM fields, and many report different experiences with faculty and staff across institutional settings. We still have much to learn about how these and other contextual factors relate to mental well-being." 

The research team plans to examine these factors more closely, in collaboration with campus partners, to inform targeted supports that help autistic students thrive.