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High School Experiences and Support Recommendations of Autistic Youth

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Abstract

We used an online survey to gather perspectives of autistic youth (n = 248) on the impacts of autism, school professionals, family members, and peers on their high school experiences; what each stakeholder group could have done better; and what future high school professionals and autistic youth should know. Two-thirds of participants viewed autism as negatively impacting their school experience, and this was more prevalent in women. The majority viewed impacts of school professionals, family, and peers as positive. Women were more likely to view school professional contributions as positive than men, and LGBT youth were more likely to view school professional and peer contributions as negative than non-LGBT youth. Suggestions for stakeholders included providing more help, care, and quality time.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Michael and Susan Argyelan Education Research Fund administered by the Lynch School of Education and Human Development for providing funding for this project. We would also like to thank the many participants who agreed to complete the surveys.

Funding

This research was supported by the Michael and Susan Argyelan Education Research Fund on Boston College.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lynch School of Education and Human Development, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, USA

    Kristen Bottema-Beutel, Josephine Cuda, So Yoon Kim, Shannon Crowley & David Scanlon

Authors
  1. Kristen Bottema-Beutel
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  2. Josephine Cuda
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  3. So Yoon Kim
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  4. Shannon Crowley
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  5. David Scanlon
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Contributions

KBB participated in the study design, supervised data collection and analysis, conducted the statistical analysis, and drafted the manuscript. JC coordinated recruitment and data collection, managed the participant database, led survey response coding, and edited the manuscript. SYK and SC participated in survey response coding assisted and in editing the manuscript. DS participated in the study design and edited the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kristen Bottema-Beutel.

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed parental consent and participant assent was obtained from all individuals prior to their participation in this study.

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Bottema-Beutel, K., Cuda, J., Kim, S.Y. et al. High School Experiences and Support Recommendations of Autistic Youth. J Autism Dev Disord 50, 3397–3412 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-04261-0

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