Die Studie entdeckt alarmierende Angst- und Depressionsraten bei autistischen Studenten. Die Studie von 342 Universitäten und 149.783 Studenten stellte fest, dass autistische Personen zu einem großen Wendepunkt in ihrem Leben mit psychischen Gesundheitsproblemen konfrontiert sind – wenn sie aufs College gehen.

I’ve linked to the press release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10803-025-06876-y

From the linked article:

Study uncovers alarming anxiety rates among autistic college students

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, autistic college students face dramatically higher rates of anxiety and depression compared to their non-autistic peers.

Psychologists at Binghamton 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,” said Diego Aragon-Guevara, lead author on the paper and a PhD student in psychology at Binghamton.

Yeah, I had social anxiety in college and dropped out because of it. I can only imagine how difficult it is for someone with autism. These types of things dictate your life. Therapy certainly didn’t help my anxiety. Having social anxiety will prevent one from getting and maintaining a job not to mention even choosing a major knowing that your major will be decided based on the fact that you have social anxiety. These types of things are experienced by those with autism as well. It’s pretty sad. Hopefully accommodations can be made for those with autism experiencing depression and anxiety in college allowing them to flourish and reach their potential.

It’s a sudden change to the structure of schooling for most folks. College is an entirely different beast than K-12, there’s so many more choices to be made and while there are some similarities in expectations, there’s a lot more freedom in meeting those expectations. Add the commonly comorbid social anxiety and it makes a lot of sense.

I hadn’t gone to college because of the lack of support in understanding and choosing. Even that was overwhelming. But when I eventually gave it a try, I was so in over my head and depressed. Not to mention, I was older, so it was more anxious for me… yeah. I wish I could go so badly, but I likely couldn’t.

It’s all self reported though. Autism is trendy right now so you can hardly take studies like this seriously when so many people are claiming to be autistic.