Advanced Undergraduate Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Perceptions of Social Supports that Buffer College-related Stress and Facilitate Academic Success

The purpose of this exploratory case study of advanced undergraduate students with Autism Spectrum Disorder was three-fold. First, it was designed to elicit participants' descriptions of the stress they experienced related to college and being a student. Second, the study aimed to describe how helpful various types of social support were to buffer college-related stress and facilitate academic success. Third, the study was designed to obtain interview participants' descriptions of specific stressful situations in which they received support from which they were asked to recall who gave the support, identify the kind of help received, and describe how the support was effective. More specifically, the study sought to reveal participants' perceptions of the support they received from family members, friends, professors, and others in helping to buffer college-related stress and facilitate academic success.;Social support, as described by House (1981), encompasses "an interpersonal transaction involving one or more of the following: (a) emotional concern (liking, loving, empathy), (b) instrumental aid (goods or services), (c) information (about the environment), or appraisal (information relevant to self-evaluation)" (p. 39). House's model served as the conceptual framework for this study.;A two-method approach was used to answer the research questions. Study volunteers were asked to complete a paper-and-pencil survey and to participate in an in-person interview. Ten advanced undergraduate students (i.e., students matriculating beyond the first year) with Autism Spectrum Disorder from five four-year universities in three New England states participated in this study. Procedures associated with quantitative and qualitative research were used to analyze the data, which consisted of survey data and verbatim transcripts of in-person interviews. This analysis yielded 31 findings. Conclusions were drawn and recommendations for practice and future research are presented.;Study participants' reports of the social supports they perceived helped to buffer college-related stress and facilitate academic success revealed that emotional support was the most frequent type of support received, with family members cited as the primary provider. Participants also revealed that professors and friends were perceived to provide a high level of instrumental and informational support. Overall, participants perceived that they received emotional, instrumental, and informational support that helped to buffer college-related stress and facilitate academic success and the sources were primarily family members, friends, and professors.