Diametrically opposed associations between academic achievement and social anxiety among university students with and without autism spectrum disorder.
Among university students with ASD, higher social anxiety predicts better grades, so cutting anxiety across the board may backfire.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Zukerman et al. (2019) looked at university students with and without autism.
They asked how social anxiety links to grade-point average in each group.
The team used surveys and school records to find the pattern.
What they found
Students with autism had lower GPAs on average.
Surprise: among these students, higher social anxiety went with higher grades.
For students without autism, more anxiety meant lower grades, the usual pattern.
How this fits with other research
Liew et al. (2015) first mapped how autistic traits and anxiety connect in college kids.
Hillier et al. (2018) later showed a support group could lower anxiety.
That seems to clash with Gil’s finding, but the difference is the goal. Ashleigh aimed to help students feel better; Gil found that some anxiety may help them study harder.
Scott et al. (2023) tracked the same group across a school year and saw that mental-health links can shift, so the anxiety-grade tie might change too.
Why it matters
If you serve college students with autism, rethink blanket “reduce anxiety” goals. A little social worry might push them to attend class, ask questions, and keep up with work. Instead of trying to remove anxiety, teach students to use it as a cue to prepare while giving coping tools for when it spikes too high.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Check if your client’s academic goals are slipping; if so, teach them to channel mild pre-class nerves into study actions instead of calming the nerves away.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Research findings indicate that anxiety, social anxiety in particular, is the most common experience reported by individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) attending postsecondary education. Among students without ASD, higher levels of social anxiety have been postulated to correlate with impaired academic achievement; restriction of one's social network because of anxiety is thought to lead to reduction of access to resources important for learning such as social/emotional support and collaborative learning. However, despite growing interest in the outcomes of young students with ASD, no research has studied the associations between academic achievement and anxiety among students with ASD. This study examined the association between social anxiety and grade point average (GPA) among university students: 55 diagnosed with ASD, 31 without ASD but high levels of social anxiety, and 25 without ASD and with low levels of social anxiety (controls). GPAs were significantly lower for the ASD group than for the two non-ASD groups. Among students without ASD, a negative correlation between social anxiety and grades was observed whereas the reverse pattern was found for the ASD group, meaning that for students with ASD, higher levels of social anxiety were associated with higher grades. Additionally, in a regression analysis, ASD diagnosis, social anxiety, and the interaction of group × social anxiety significantly predicted GPA. Possible explanations for this finding, as well as implications for interventions among this population of high-functioning students with ASD, are discussed. Autism Res 2019, 12: 1376-1385. © 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: This study compared the relationship between levels of social anxiety and grades in students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and in students without ASD who had either high social anxiety or low social anxiety (controls). Among the group with ASD, higher levels of social anxiety were associated with higher grades, whereas the reverse pattern was found among the other groups. This finding's implications for interventions among students with ASD are discussed.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2019 · doi:10.1002/aur.2129