Autistic student well-being indicators at school: Parent, educator and therapist perspectives

Autistic students experience disproportionately high levels of distress and unmet support needs at school, yet there is limited school‑based evidence to guide how their well‑being is recognised in everyday educational contexts. Most existing research has focused on home, community, or clinical settings, leaving a gap in understanding how autistic students communicate both high and low well‑being during the school day. This study addresses this gap by increasing understanding of school‑based indicators of autistic student well‑being across emotional, social, physical, academic, and future‑focused domains. Using a two‑phase, multi-informant design, Phase 1 collected qualitative data from caregivers, educators, and school‑based therapists (n = 41) to identify externally observable indicators of high and low well‑being. Phase 2 invited a separate sample (n = 36) to evaluate the perceived reliability of the most frequently identified indicators. Inductive content analysis identified 94 high and 99 low well‑being indicators. Three key findings emerged. First, indicators varied substantially in how they were expressed across students, highlighting the importance of interpreting change relative to individual baselines rather than normative expectations. Second, many indicators reflected specific dimensions of well‑being and did not function as global markers across contexts. Third, indicators most frequently reported were not always those judged to be most reliable indicators of autistic students’ well-being, underscoring the limitations of frequency‑based approaches. Together, these findings demonstrate that autistic student well‑being at school is best understood as multidimensional, context‑dependent, and individually patterned. By clarifying how well‑being indicators are identified and interpreted in school settings, this study provides an important foundation for future practice‑focused tools, professional learning, and research aimed at more responsive and inclusive support for autistic students.