University of Edinburgh, UK.
The Autistic Mutual Aid Society Edinburgh, UK.
Autism. 2023 Jan;27(1):76-91. doi: 10.1177/13623613221081189. Epub 2022 Mar 5.
Autistic young people may struggle in mainstream schools and feel disconnected from their peers and their school. We know that autistic adults can benefit from spending time with other autistic people, but we don't know if this is the case for younger autistic people. We conducted interviews with 13 autistic young adults in the United Kingdom who recently left mainstream schooling. We asked them if they would have been interested in being involved in autistic peer support when they were at school, and if so, what that peer support should look like. Results indicated that autistic young people were enthusiastic about the idea of peer support. They thought it was important that peer support was flexible to suit their needs at different times, as well as inclusive, positive, and embracing neurodiversity. They also discussed the potential benefits and difficulties of having a peer support system within a school setting. This adds to the growing body of research on the potential benefits of autistic-autistic interactions on autistic people's well-being and sense of belonging. Findings can be used to help design pilot peer support projects in schools that can be tested to see how effective they are.
自闭症青少年在主流学校可能会感到困难，与同龄人以及学校脱节。我们知道自闭症成年人与其他自闭症人士相处会受益，但我们不知道这是否适用于年幼的自闭症人士。我们对英国 13 名最近离开主流学校的自闭症青少年进行了访谈。我们询问他们在学校时是否有兴趣参与自闭症同伴支持，如果有，他们希望这种同伴支持是什么样的。结果表明，自闭症青少年对同伴支持的想法很感兴趣。他们认为，同伴支持具有灵活性以满足他们不同时期的需求，同时还具有包容性、积极性和对神经多样性的包容，这一点很重要。他们还讨论了在学校环境中建立同伴支持系统的潜在好处和困难。这增加了关于自闭症人士之间互动对其幸福感和归属感的潜在益处的研究。研究结果可用于帮助设计学校中的同伴支持试点项目，以测试它们的有效性。
