Autism Symptoms, Executive Functioning and Academic Progress in Higher Education Students

Renée Dijkhuis; Leo de Sonneville; Tim Ziermans; Wouter Staal; Hanna Swaab

doi:10.1007/s10803-019-04267-8

Autism Symptoms, Executive Functioning and Academic Progress in Higher Education Students

J Autism Dev Disord. 2020 Apr;50(4):1353-1363. doi: 10.1007/s10803-019-04267-8.

Authors

Renée Dijkhuis^{1

2}, Leo de Sonneville^{1

2}, Tim Ziermans^{1

3

4}, Wouter Staal^{1

5

6}, Hanna Swaab^{7

8}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Clinical Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
² Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands.
³ Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
⁴ Department of Brain and Cognition, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
⁵ Karakter Universitair Centrum, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
⁶ Radboud Universitair Medisch Centrum, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
⁷ Department of Clinical Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands. hswaab@fsw.leidenuniv.nl.
⁸ Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands. hswaab@fsw.leidenuniv.nl.

Abstract

Many students with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) attending higher education drop out prematurely. The predictive value of self-reported daily executive functioning (EF) and (cognitive) performance-based EF (mental flexibility and working memory) for academic progress was evaluated in 54 young adults with ASD (M_age = 22.5, SD = 2.4, 72% male). Regression analyses showed that autism symptom severity explained 12% of variance in academic progress, which was raised to 36% by adding self-reported daily EF, and to 25% by adding performance-based EF. It is suggested that EF is a candidate marker for academic progress in higher education students with ASD and a candidate target for early intervention.

Keywords: Autism; Executive functioning; Higher education; Young adults.

MeSH terms

Academic Performance*
Adolescent
Autistic Disorder / diagnosis
Autistic Disorder / epidemiology*
Executive Function*
Female
Humans
Male
Memory, Short-Term
Self Report
Students / statistics & numerical data*
Young Adult