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Camouflaging in Autistic and Non-autistic Adolescents in the Modern Context of Social Media

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Abstract

Camouflaging is described as a set of strategies used to prevent others from noticing one’s social difficulties. Research indicates heightened levels of camouflaging behaviours in the adult autistic population. To extend understanding of camouflaging in adolescents, this mixed-methods study explored camouflaging behaviours in offline and online contexts with 40 autistic and 158 non-autistic adolescents. At the quantitative phase, participants completed measures of camouflaging behaviours (online vs offline) and measures of social media use. Following this, six autistic adolescents participated in semi-structured interviews. Findings indicate that in the offline context, autistic adolescents camouflage more than non-autistic adolescents. Online, autistic participants camouflage less than they do offline, and females camouflage more than males. Implications for research and theory are discussed.

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Notes

  1. The current paper refers to ‘Autistic Spectrum Condition’ (ASC) or ‘Autism’ as opposed to ‘Autistic Spectrum Disorder’ (ASD), and refers to ‘autistic individuals’ as opposed to ‘individuals with autism’—a preferred term within majority of the autistic community in the UK (Kenny et al., 2015). It is acknowledged that personal preferences for terminology exist.

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Acknowledgments

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. The paper was prepared from a doctoral dissertation. Thank you to all the young people who participated in this study. Thank you also to Laura Hull for informative discussions, sharing of the CAT-Q questionnaire and support in adaptation of the CATO-Q questionnaire.

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  1. University College London, London, UK

    Alicja Jedrzejewska & Jessica Dewey

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  1. Alicja Jedrzejewska
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  2. Jessica Dewey
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Contributions

Author contributions: AJ conceived of the study, participated in its design and coordination, performed the statistical analyses and drafted the manuscript; JD supervised the study, participated in the design and coordination, assisted with interpretation of the data and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Alicja Jedrzejewska.

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Ethical Approval

Ethical approval was obtained from the UCL Research Ethics Committee on 06.12.2017. The British Psychology Society Code of Ethics and Conduct (BPS 2018) and the Health and Care Professions Council Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics (HCPC 2012) were followed in order to ensure the study complied with ethical standards.

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Jedrzejewska, A., Dewey, J. Camouflaging in Autistic and Non-autistic Adolescents in the Modern Context of Social Media. J Autism Dev Disord 52, 630–646 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-021-04953-6

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