Enhancing neurodivergent student success through wellbeing: Protocol for a quasi-experimental evaluation of the Tuned In Connect program across three Australian universities

Neurodivergent university students face significant barriers to participation and success including sensory sensitivities, executive function challenges, social pressures, identity masking, and burnout. Evidence-based programs addressing the social and emotional dimensions of neurodivergent students’ experiences are needed. This protocol describes an evaluation of the Tuned In Connect program, comprising an online self-paced module and a five-session group course. It was adapted by and for neurodivergent university students from the original Tuned In, an emotion regulation intervention that uses a two-dimensional model of emotion and music listening. Participants will be 145 neurodivergent students recruited from three Australian universities. The study will adopt a mixed between- and within-participants design, with participants randomly allocated to the intervention or waitlist control condition, and assessments at baseline and approximately six weeks later. Control participants will have the option of attending the intervention after their 6-week survey and will be asked to complete a third survey after the program. Historical control data from a 2023 cohort of neurodivergent university students may be used to supplement the waitlist control condition. Primary outcomes include sense of belonging, academic motivation, academic course completion, and semester grade point average. Secondary outcomes include emotion regulation, use of music for focus and coping, and wellbeing. Additional secondary and exploratory outcomes include anxiety, burnout, alexithymia and alcohol use. A qualitative sub-study will explore participant experiences through post-program focus groups analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. The findings, if positive, will support the adoption of Tuned In Connect by other universities as a scalable approach to supporting neurodivergent students.