Do All of Us Camouflage? Exploring Levels of Camouflaging and Mental Health Well-Being in the General Population

Abstract

AbstractCamouflaging refers to behaviours observed in autistic people to hide or compensate for difficulties experienced during social interaction. As it is unknown to what extent neurotypical individuals camouflage, this study looked at camouflaging and mental well-being in the general population. We employed a cross-sectional survey design to recruit 164 people (123 female, 35 male, 5 non-binary, 1 prefer not to say) between 18 and 65 years of age online. Participants filled in measures of autistic traits, camouflaging, social anxiety, generalised anxiety and presence of autism diagnosis (5 self-diagnosed, 5 diagnosed, 154 not diagnosed) and additional mental health diagnoses. Camouflaging was significantly correlated with autistic traits, social anxiety, generalised anxiety and age. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that autistic traits and social and generalised anxiety predicted camouflaging. Logistic regression analyses for mental health diagnoses showed camouflaging significantly reduced risk of depression, although the effect was small. No other mental health diagnoses were predicted by camouflaging. Neurotypical individuals who have higher autistic traits and experience more social and/or generalised anxiety may be more likely to camouflage.