Understanding and measuring psychological distress in Autistic students.

Autistic individuals are reported to have lower university completion rates than their non-autistic peers (Cage et al., 2020). Other research demonstrates that autistic students self-report significant mental health difficulties (McLeod, et al., 2021) and face challenges at university (Scott & Sedgewick, 2021). Understanding the life experiences and psychological distress experienced by autistic students can facilitate opportunities to develop both societal engagement and improve their quality of life (Van Heijist & Geurts, 2015). University counselling services (UCSs) effectively improve student experiences of depression, anxiety, and academic distress (Broglia et al., 2021). However, autistic people are likely to struggle to access professional mental health support, and have been reported to respond differently than non-autistic people to commonly used psychotherapeutic interventions (Scott & Sedgewick, 2021). Thus, the overarching objective of this PhD project would be to research the lived mental health experiences of autistic students and develop a reliable measure that can accurately assess autistic students' psychological distress for use within UCSs. The primary intended user of this measure would therefore be clinicians and practitioners working within UCSs.