Mental Health Problems Among UK Undergraduates: A Comparison Study of Autistic and Non-autistic Students.
Autistic university students carry more mental-health labels, but the levers you pull to help—uncertainty tolerance and resilience—are the same ones you use with every other student.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Gundeslioglu et al. (2025) asked 1,007 UK undergraduates to fill out online surveys. Half had an autism diagnosis; half were non-autistic peers.
The survey listed common mental-health diagnoses and asked about suicide thoughts. It also measured intolerance of uncertainty and resilience.
What they found
Autistic students were twice as likely to report depression, anxiety, or ADHD. They also scored higher on suicide risk.
Surprise: the same two factors predicted distress in both groups. High intolerance of uncertainty raised risk; high resilience lowered it.
How this fits with other research
Hedley et al. (2021) saw a similar pattern in Australian autistic adults during COVID-19. Stress hurt mood, yet suicide risk stayed flat. Together the studies show autistic adults react to stress like anyone else.
Greene et al. (2019) found teachers rated nearly half of school-aged autistic students as highly anxious. Hatice’s numbers are even higher at university, suggesting untreated anxiety follows students into higher education.
Melegari et al. (2025) report that parenting stress plus bullying raises anxiety in autistic teens. Hatice adds the student view: inside the lecture hall, personal coping style matters more than family stress.
Why it matters
You can use the same brief screens for intolerance of uncertainty and resilience with autistic and non-autistic clients. Target these transdiagnostic factors instead of autism-specific traits. When you see high uncertainty distress, teach flexible problem-solving and self-calming. Boost resilience by shaping help-seeking and self-advocacy. These skills transfer across depression, anxiety, and suicide risk.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The aim of this study was to examine whether the relationship between a set of risk and protective factors (e.g., self-esteem, stress, intolerance of uncertainty, autistic symptoms) and mental health problems differed between autistic and non-autistic undergraduates enrolled in UK universities across genders. Autistic and non-autistic undergraduates were invited to complete an online survey between November 2022 and June 2023. The sample included 226 autistic participants, mean age = 21.36, SD = 4.04, and 46.9%, and 521 non-autistic participants, mean age = 21.96, SD = 4.24, and 63.3%. Two-way ANOVA followed by post-hoc comparisons were used to examine gender differences in mental health problems and multiple regression models were used to identify the predictors of mental health problems among autistic participants in comparison to non-autistic participants. A higher number of autistic undergraduates self-reported having mental health diagnoses than non-autistic undergraduates. Autistic females and autistic and non-autistic individuals of genders other than male or female had increased suicidality-defined to include both suicidal ideation and behaviours - relative to some groups. There were no gender differences in anxiety and worry, and in behavioural symptoms of depression and anxiety. Moreover, for both autistic and non-autistic participants, intolerance of uncertainty was associated with higher levels of anxiety and worry, whereas resilience was associated with lower levels of suicidality and behavioural symptoms of depression and anxiety. While autistic undergraduates self-reported more mental health disorders, there were more similarities than differences between autistic and non-autistic undergraduate students in terms of mental health risk and protective factors.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2025 · doi:10.1007/s10803-025-07002-8