School Anxiety Experienced by Autistic Children: A Systematic Review of Contributing Factors

Abstract Anxiety about school is becoming increasingly recognised among Autistic learners, yet the term is often applied in essentialist ways that obscure underlying contributors. Our systematic review aimed to identify and evaluate research examining psychosocial contributors to school anxiety among Autistic learners. We included studies which reported a relationship – without attributing it to a non-contributing reason - between school anxiety and a psychosocial factor among Autistic learners. We searched PsycINFO, Medline, ERIC, and Scopus through March 2025.Eight papers (N = 767 participants) met inclusion criteria, including three qualitative and five quantitative studies. We conducted a narrative synthesis and assessed quality using STROBE and CASP. Three studies investigated individual-level factors (e.g., age, gender) with mixed significance. Five identified micro-system level contributors: social expectations (n = 4), academic and cognitive expectations (n = 2), and physical design (n = 4).Using a critical realist lens, we propose a layered ecological framework in which neuro-normative epistemic injustice shapes the micro-system through school-based contributors, or affordances, that manifest as individual differences. Eligible studies were limited in epistemic depth, which overlooked interrelations and deeper macro-systemic mechanisms. Despite generally moderate to high quality, key limitations included reliance on service-based recruitment, underrepresentation of marginalised identities, and dominance of non-Autistic informants – reinforcing epistemic injustice by sidelining Autistic perspectives.Our findings highlight the need for inclusive, participatory methods capable of capturing the complex, macrosystemic realities of Autistic learner’s experiences of school anxiety.