01/08/2025
New study: Research from King’s College London has given us clear evidence of what our community has been saying for years. On average, autistic, ADHD and AuDHD students experience around twice the emotional burden of their peers at school.
The study shows that school environments expose our young people to more frequent and more intense upsetting experiences, and those experiences take a toll.
This helps explain what many of our families see every day: our ladybugs masking their distress at school, only to crash at home. It also offers insight into why “school can’t” is so often a response to harm, rather than defiance. And it strengthens the link between school culture and mental health.
Researchers worked closely with neurodivergent students to identify which school experiences cause the most emotional distress. These included:
• Peers talking behind their backs
• Unexpected waits in queues
• Teachers telling them off
• Being ignored or misunderstood
• Last-minute changes of plan
• Sensory overload in classrooms
• Losing or forgetting things (and being punished for it)
• Boring lessons and lack of engagement
• Constant pressure to “try harder”
• Being blamed for things they didn’t do
The study found clear differences between groups.
💛 Autistic students were most affected by sensory overload, being rushed, social confusion and peers talking behind their backs.
💛 ADHD students were most distressed by boredom, not feeling heard by teachers, unfair blame and pressure to “try harder.”
You can check out the study here:
https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/336095677/Lukito_et_al_2024-Emotional_Burden-author_accepted_version.pdf
Study name: Emotional burden in school as a source of mental health problems associated with ADHD and/or autism (Lukito et al., 2025), found that autistic, ADHD and AuDHD students carry twice the emotional burden of their peers…”
Lukito, S., Chandler, S., Kakoulidou, M., Griffiths, K., Wyatt, A., Funnell, E., Pavlopoulou, G., Baker, S., Stahl, D., & Sonuga‑Barke, E. (2025). Emotional burden in school as a source of mental health problems associated with ADHD and/or autism: Development and validation of a new co‑produced self‑report measure. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.70003 cr
