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College Students’ Perceptions of Peers with Autism Spectrum Disorder

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Abstract

Little is known about peer attitudes toward college students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Affective, behavioral, and cognitive attitudes toward vignette characters displaying behaviors characteristic of ASD were examined among 224 four-year university students who were randomly assigned to one of three labeling conditions for the primary vignette characters: high functioning autism (HFA), typical college student, or no label. Students in the HFA label condition reported more positive behavioral and cognitive attitudes toward the vignette characters than students in the no label condition. Male students and students with lower scores on the Broad Autism Phenotype Questionnaire reported more positive attitudes across study conditions. These experimental results suggest that knowledge of a diagnosis might improve attitudes toward college students with ASD.

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Notes

  1. Students in the no label condition reported significantly more negative behavioral attitudes toward the vignette characters than students in the HFA label condition when covariates were not included in the model (b = -0.19, p = .05). A marginal difference in the same direction was observed between the no label and HFA label conditions when controlling for gender, autism knowledge and scores on the BAPQ (b = −0.16, p = .08).

  2. Male students reported marginally higher cognitive attitudes than female students when controlling for condition, autism knowledge and scores on the BAPQ (b = 0.24, p = .06).

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Acknowledgments

We thank the University of California, Irvine Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program for financial support of this project. We gratefully acknowledge the contributions made by Kent Chiu, Rob Haghighi, and Lesley Lai to data collection and coding. We also thank the college students who participated in this study.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Nicole L. Matthews

    Present address: Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center, 300 N. 18th Street, Phoenix, AZ, 85006, USA

  2. Agnes R. Ly

    Present address: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, 19716, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA, 92697, USA

    Nicole L. Matthews, Agnes R. Ly & Wendy A. Goldberg

Authors
  1. Nicole L. Matthews
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  2. Agnes R. Ly
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  3. Wendy A. Goldberg
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nicole L. Matthews.

Appendix

Appendix

Vignette #1

It is the first day of the quarter and you are sitting in your Humanities course. The professor explains that each student will be randomly assigned to a partner with whom he or she will work on a number of group projects throughout the quarter. Together these group projects will be worth 50 % of your final grade. The professor tells you that you will be working with a student named Kyle. Kyle is in the same year of school as you, (has high functioning autism OR is a typical college student OR no statement) and is of above average intelligence. (Following sentence only included in HFA condition.) Individuals with high functioning autism sometimes demonstrate difficulty with social interactions and appropriate communication. However, most are of average to above average intelligence. As a part of the first group project, you are instructed to choose a contemporary fiction book to compare and contrast to a literary classic. You ask Kyle if he has any ideas, and he immediately states that he would like to use The Lord of the Rings. You tell him that you think that is a good idea, but you mention that you are worried because it is more than 1,200 pages, which may be too long for the current assignment. You try to name three other books that you think would be more appropriate. You ask Kyle if he has any additional ideas. In response, Kyle begins a five minute explanation of why he thinks The Lord of the Rings is the best choice. Every time you attempt to ask Kyle about another book, he immediately returns to his discussion of The Lord of the Rings.

Vignette #2

You decide to join a campus club focused on community service and volunteer work. You hope to make friends with someone at the first meeting because you do not know anyone else in the club. When you enter the meeting room, the club president introduces you to another club member named Tim. Tim is the same year in school as you, (has high functioning autism OR is a typical college student OR no statement) and is of above average intelligence. (Following sentence only included in HFA condition.) Individuals with high functioning autism sometimes demonstrate difficulty with social interactions and appropriate communication. However, most are of average to above average intelligence. You introduce yourself to Tim and reach out your hand to shake hands. He quickly responds, “Hi, I’m Tim,” without looking up from the club brochure that he is reading, and he does not shake your hand. You try to get to know Tim by asking him what he likes to do in his free time. He responds by pulling out a video game magazine and explaining his favorite video game to you. You attempt to tell him about yourself, but he repeatedly returns to discussing video games and seems more interested in his video game magazine than his conversation with you.

Vignette #3

It is move-in day in the dorms and you are carrying some of your belongings into your new room in one of the co-ed suites. Alex, one of your suitemates who lives in the opposite room to yours, walks into the room. Alex is the same year in school as you, (has high functioning autism OR is a typical college student OR no statement) and is of above average intelligence. (Following sentence only included in HFA condition.) Individuals with high functioning autism sometimes demonstrate difficulty with social interactions and appropriate communication. However, most are of average to above average intelligence. You notice that the furniture in the shared living space is arranged in a way that seems to make the space more cramped. A week later, you decide to ask if Alex could help you rearrange the furniture. You start to move around the sofa but Alex gets upset and moves it back to its original position with no explanation. You brush it off and just decide to move around the furniture on your own. Alex sees that the furniture was moved and frantically requests that everything be moved back to the way it was.

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Matthews, N.L., Ly, A.R. & Goldberg, W.A. College Students’ Perceptions of Peers with Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 45, 90–99 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2195-6

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