Autistic young people’s psychological well-being in school

Autistic students often face unique challenges at school compared to their non-autistic peers. However, there is a lack of robust evidence investigating their well-being at school. This study examined autistic adolescents' school well-being using data from a UK population-based cohort. Participants self-reported their positive and negative affect towards and within school. Results indicated that autistic adolescents (<i>n</i> = 271; <i>M</i>_age = 13.73; <i>SD</i> = 0.47; 23.11% female) experienced significantly lower levels of school well-being than non-autistic adolescents (<i>n</i> = 8077; <i>M</i>_age = 13.78; <i>SD</i> = 0.45; 50.67% female), as evidenced by both lower positive, and higher negative, affect. Differences were attenuated when factors associated with school well-being were controlled for, and levels of well-being no longer differed significantly. Autistic adolescents' (<i>n</i> = 412; <i>M</i>_age = 13.76; <i>SD</i> = 0.46; 18.52% female) positive affect towards school was mostly associated with academic self-concept, whereas negative affect was mostly associated with academic self-concept, bullying victimisation and peer problems. The findings suggest that autistic school well-being could be promoted by supporting autistic students to feel good about their academic effort at school, as well as through school-wide anti-bullying programmes.Lay abstractMany autistic young people often experience difficulties at school. However, we know little about how autistic students feel about school compared to their non-autistic peers. Understanding their experiences is important, because school well-being might affect going to school, longer-term learning, as well as friendships and mental health. In this study, we used information from a UK national survey of young people aged 14 years. Students were asked about how happy they felt at school (positive feelings) and how often they felt unhappy at school (negative feelings). We compared answers from autistic and non-autistic students. We also looked at what things were related to autistic students' feelings about school, including how confident they felt in their schoolwork, experiences of bullying and relationships with friends and family. Autistic students reported feeling less happy and more unhappy at school than non-autistic students. When we considered other things related to well-being, such as being bullying or self-confidence at school, these differences became a lot smaller. For autistic students, positive feelings about school were most strongly related to believing they were good at their schoolwork. Negative feelings about school were related to being bullied, difficult relationships with friends and lower confidence in schoolwork. These findings suggest that differences in school well-being between autistic and non-autistic students may be explained by things that could be changed with support. Supporting autistic students to feel more confident about how well they do academically, and ensuring schools reduce bullying, could help improve autistic young people's experiences of school.