Anxiety is a common co-occurring condition for autistic students; however, little is known about how anxiety may affect their social or academic outcomes in an educational setting. Furthermore, the perspectives of students themselves have rarely been included in the literature. Using Q-sort method, 45 autistic participants aged 7 to 17 years identified the outcomes they perceived were most impacted by their anxiety in the educational setting. The three outcomes most highly rated as being impacted by anxiety overall were academic outcomes. Using by-person factor analysis, six distinct factors, or ‘viewpoints’, were identified. These viewpoints reflect different combinations of outcomes affected by anxiety, including missing school or activities, reduced interactions with friends, reduced classroom communication and finding it harder to complete schoolwork. This study adds to the literature by using Q-sort method to enable autistic children and adolescents to report the impacts of their anxiety. Anxiety has additional impacts on the social and academic outcomes of autistic students, highlighting the need for increased awareness and training for parents and professionals, an individualised approach to student support and further research regarding the relationship between anxiety and academic outcomes.Lay abstractMany autistic students experience anxiety, but there is little research that explores how anxiety might affect autistic students in the school environment. In this study, 45 autistic students, aged 7 to 17 years, completed an online sorting activity to tell us how anxiety impacts them at school. The students were given 21 statements about possible social and academic effects of anxiety (for example, ‘When I’m worried it’s hard to start my schoolwork’ or ‘When I’m worried I talk less to my friends or other students’), and sorted them based on how much they agreed each statement was true for them. The three statements most highly rated as being impacted by anxiety were difficulties related to schoolwork. By comparing the information provided by students, six smaller groups of students were identified who sorted the statements in a similar order. These groups show that anxiety affects different autistic students in different ways, including missing school or activities, communicating less with friends and teachers and finding it harder to complete schoolwork. This online sorting activity enabled autistic students themselves to report how anxiety affects them at school. The results suggest that it is important to provide individualised support for autistic students who experience anxiety at school, to reduce the impact of their anxiety on their participation, communication and interactions, and schoolwork. Further research about the effects of anxiety on the academic outcomes of autistic students is also needed.

中文翻译：

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使用 Q 排序方法探讨自闭症学生对学校焦虑影响的看法

焦虑是自闭症学生常见的共存症状。然而，人们对焦虑如何影响他们在教育环境中的社交或学业成绩知之甚少。此外，学生自己的观点很少被纳入文献中。使用 Q 排序方法，45 名 7 至 17 岁的自闭症参与者确定了他们认为在教育环境中受焦虑影响最大的结果。总体而言，受焦虑影响最高的三个结果是学业结果。通过个人因素分析，确定了六个不同的因素或“观点”。这些观点反映了受焦虑影响的不同结果组合，包括缺课或缺课、与朋友互动减少、课堂交流减少以及完成作业变得更加困难。这项研究通过使用 Q 排序方法补充了文献，使自闭症儿童和青少年能够报告其焦虑的影响。焦虑对自闭症学生的社会和学业成绩有额外的影响，强调需要提高家长和专业人士的认识和培训，采取个性化的学生支持方法，并进一步研究焦虑与学业成绩之间的关系。抽象许多自闭症学生的经历但很少有研究探讨焦虑如何影响学校环境中的自闭症学生。在这项研究中，45 名年龄在 7 至 17 岁的自闭症学生完成了一项在线分类活动，以告诉我们焦虑对他们在学校的影响。学生们收到了 21 条关于焦虑可能造成的社会和学业影响的陈述（例如，“当我担心时，很难开始我的功课”或“当我担心时，我会减少与朋友或其他学生的交谈”），并根据他们对每个陈述的真实程度的同意程度对它们进行排序。受焦虑影响最高的三个陈述是与学业相关的困难。通过比较学生提供的信息，确定了六个较小的学生组，他们以相似的顺序对陈述进行排序。这些小组表明，焦虑以不同的方式影响不同的自闭症学生，包括缺课或缺课、与朋友和老师的交流减少以及完成作业变得更加困难。这项在线分类活动使自闭症学生能够自己报告焦虑如何影响他们在学校的情况。结果表明，为在学校经历焦虑的自闭症学生提供个性化支持，以减少他们的焦虑对他们的参与、沟通和互动以及学业的影响非常重要。还需要进一步研究焦虑对自闭症学生学业成绩的影响。