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Exploring the Career Motivations, Strengths, and Challenges of Autistic and Non-autistic University Students: Insights From a Participatory Study

Supports for the growing number of autistic university students often focus on helping them succeed in university. However, even educated autistic people experience discrimination and other challenges which can make it very difficult for them to obtain meaningful jobs. Little remains known about how...

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Autores principales: Cheriyan, Chinnu, Shevchuk-Hill, Sergey, Riccio, Ariana, Vincent, Jonathan, Kapp, Steven K., Cage, Eilidh, Dwyer, Patrick, Kofner, Bella, Attwood, Helen, Gillespie-Lynch, Kristen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8568013/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34744884
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.719827
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author Cheriyan, Chinnu
Shevchuk-Hill, Sergey
Riccio, Ariana
Vincent, Jonathan
Kapp, Steven K.
Cage, Eilidh
Dwyer, Patrick
Kofner, Bella
Attwood, Helen
Gillespie-Lynch, Kristen
author_facet Cheriyan, Chinnu
Shevchuk-Hill, Sergey
Riccio, Ariana
Vincent, Jonathan
Kapp, Steven K.
Cage, Eilidh
Dwyer, Patrick
Kofner, Bella
Attwood, Helen
Gillespie-Lynch, Kristen
author_sort Cheriyan, Chinnu
collection PubMed
description Supports for the growing number of autistic university students often focus on helping them succeed in university. However, even educated autistic people experience discrimination and other challenges which can make it very difficult for them to obtain meaningful jobs. Little remains known about how universities can better support their autistic students and alumni in overcoming barriers to meaningful employment. In this participatory study, a team of autistic and non-autistic researchers asked autistic (n = 92) and non-autistic (n = 774) university students about their career aspirations, strengths they believe will help them succeed in their “dream jobs,” and obstacles they expect to encounter. Autistic participants’ top goal in attending college was to improve their career prospects. However, relatively few autistic students reported learning career-specific skills at university. Autistic students were more likely to seek an academic job and less likely to seek a career in healthcare than non-autistic students. Autistic students highlighted writing skills and detail orientation as strengths that could help them succeed in their dream jobs more often than non-autistic students. However, they were also more likely to expect discrimination, social, and psychological difficulties to stand in the way of their dream jobs. These findings suggest that universities should prioritize experiential learning opportunities to help autistic (and non-autistic) students develop employment-related skills while providing mental health supports. Universities should demonstrate their commitment to supporting diverse learners by seeking out and hiring autistic professionals and by teaching their own staff and employers how to appreciate and support autistic colleagues.
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spelling pubmed-85680132021-11-05 Exploring the Career Motivations, Strengths, and Challenges of Autistic and Non-autistic University Students: Insights From a Participatory Study Cheriyan, Chinnu Shevchuk-Hill, Sergey Riccio, Ariana Vincent, Jonathan Kapp, Steven K. Cage, Eilidh Dwyer, Patrick Kofner, Bella Attwood, Helen Gillespie-Lynch, Kristen Front Psychol Psychology Supports for the growing number of autistic university students often focus on helping them succeed in university. However, even educated autistic people experience discrimination and other challenges which can make it very difficult for them to obtain meaningful jobs. Little remains known about how universities can better support their autistic students and alumni in overcoming barriers to meaningful employment. In this participatory study, a team of autistic and non-autistic researchers asked autistic (n = 92) and non-autistic (n = 774) university students about their career aspirations, strengths they believe will help them succeed in their “dream jobs,” and obstacles they expect to encounter. Autistic participants’ top goal in attending college was to improve their career prospects. However, relatively few autistic students reported learning career-specific skills at university. Autistic students were more likely to seek an academic job and less likely to seek a career in healthcare than non-autistic students. Autistic students highlighted writing skills and detail orientation as strengths that could help them succeed in their dream jobs more often than non-autistic students. However, they were also more likely to expect discrimination, social, and psychological difficulties to stand in the way of their dream jobs. These findings suggest that universities should prioritize experiential learning opportunities to help autistic (and non-autistic) students develop employment-related skills while providing mental health supports. Universities should demonstrate their commitment to supporting diverse learners by seeking out and hiring autistic professionals and by teaching their own staff and employers how to appreciate and support autistic colleagues. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-10-14 /pmc/articles/PMC8568013/ /pubmed/34744884 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.719827 Text en Copyright © 2021 Cheriyan, Shevchuk-Hill, Riccio, Vincent, Kapp, Cage, Dwyer, Kofner, Attwood and Gillespie-Lynch. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Cheriyan, Chinnu
Shevchuk-Hill, Sergey
Riccio, Ariana
Vincent, Jonathan
Kapp, Steven K.
Cage, Eilidh
Dwyer, Patrick
Kofner, Bella
Attwood, Helen
Gillespie-Lynch, Kristen
Exploring the Career Motivations, Strengths, and Challenges of Autistic and Non-autistic University Students: Insights From a Participatory Study
title Exploring the Career Motivations, Strengths, and Challenges of Autistic and Non-autistic University Students: Insights From a Participatory Study
title_full Exploring the Career Motivations, Strengths, and Challenges of Autistic and Non-autistic University Students: Insights From a Participatory Study
title_fullStr Exploring the Career Motivations, Strengths, and Challenges of Autistic and Non-autistic University Students: Insights From a Participatory Study
title_full_unstemmed Exploring the Career Motivations, Strengths, and Challenges of Autistic and Non-autistic University Students: Insights From a Participatory Study
title_short Exploring the Career Motivations, Strengths, and Challenges of Autistic and Non-autistic University Students: Insights From a Participatory Study
title_sort exploring the career motivations, strengths, and challenges of autistic and non-autistic university students: insights from a participatory study
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8568013/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34744884
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.719827
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