Jared Cline, Brigham Young University
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Our primary purpose was to explore the association between characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)-known as the Broader Autism Phenotype (BAP)-and college major choice. The reason this is important is because students with the BAP sometimes have debilitating characteristics similar to ASD, but don’t qualify for academic accommodation. By exploring the relationship between major choice and the BAP prevalence, we may be able to help educate instructors and institutions to be aware of majors with elevated numbers of individuals with the BAP. In turn, we hope this will help allow those individuals to receive needed academic help. Our secondary purpose was to correlate the two separate measures we used to assess the BAP. To assess the BAP we used the well known Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) and the relatively newer Broad Autism Phenotype Questionnaire (BAPQ). Because the BAPQ is a relatively new measure with promising preliminary psychometric properties, we decided to further test its convergent validity with the AQ in order to confirm its purported soundness.