In our own words: Using participatory dialogue to reflect on the mental health experiences of autistic students in university

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. The publication reports that autistic people are authors or co-authors, without specifying their number or identifying them by name.

Horton, E., Brownhill, L. A., Bycroft, A., Goldschmied, A. Z., Knops, M. J., Lloyd, A., Tones, D., Wiltshire, B., Toro, C. T., & Jutley-Neilson, J. (2025). In our own words: Using participatory dialogue to reflect on the mental health experiences of autistic students in university. Neurodiversity, 3. https://doi.org/10.1177/27546330241310372

Publication date: 1 Jan 2025 Added to AutiHub: 17 Sep 2026 Type: Article Article language: English

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
10
Autistic authors reported by the publication
Number not specified

Abstract

The mental health of autistic university students is a key issue to address, evidenced by increased prevalence of mental health issues within the autistic community and growing numbers of autistic university students. Autistic students experiencing mental health issues have the lowest retention and progression rates of any disability group. This research took a novel approach, with seven co-authors and members of the participatory group (all current/recent students) identifying 10 themes reflecting their mental health experiences at university through reflective discussions, enabling autistic people to lead research and address power imbalances inherent in autism research. They presented these themes at a webinar, attended by over 200 staff from UK universities, providing a platform for autistic students to influence practice. Ten themes identified in line with experiences of the triggers and risk factors for mental health at university were; Routine, living independently, reasonable adjustments, group work, sensory issues, attendance and a range of learning options, disclosing diagnosis, social issues, burnout and seeing the bigger picture. We discussed the support that we found to be useful and developed recommendations for universities to support the positive well-being of autistic students. We outline the need for universities to co-produce services and support with autistic students.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 20 Sep 2026 01:01.

Cited references
86
With a DOI
66
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
20
12 / 86 (14.0%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
12 / 86 (14.0%)
References with detected author names
82 / 86 (95.3%)
Without detected author names
4
Without a structured title
12
Without a stable identifier
19
References with raw author names still to review
4
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
272
From DOI or external metadata
272
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
4
122 / 272 (44.9%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 150 / 272 (55.1%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
20 / 272 (7.4%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 20 / 122 (16.4%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 16 / 241 (6.6%).
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