,
19 tweets,
5 min read
Read on Twitter
Gender differences in camouflaging: new paper out with @WillClinPsy, @mengchuanlai and others. The paper is here - journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11… - contact me for questions about access. Summary below:
My first attempt at summarising a paper in tweet form, with bonus gifs! Apologies in advance for typos, misnumbering, etc…
1. Using the CAT-Q (see doi.org/10.1007/s10803…) we compared self-reported camo in autistic men (108), women (182), and non-binary folks (16), and non-autistic men (193), women (252), and non-binary folks (27).
2. *Note*: We grouped people by self-reported GENDER not SEX – so these groups include both cis and trans people under the same label.
3. We included non-autistic people because even if someone doesn’t have an autism diagnosis, they might have autistic traits that they camo. We also wanted to see whether any gender differences exist in non-autistic people as well.
4. We wanted to see how much these groups camo in real life, so we first compared differences while controlling for age (as older people might camo less).
5. In these analyses, we found autistic women camo more than men, with no difference between non-binary (“NB”) folks and either men or women. We found non-autistic NB people camo more than women, but no difference between non-autistic men and women.
6. But we know that people with more autistic traits will camo more – so is it just that the autistic women in our sample had more autistic traits than men?
7. No! We repeated the analyses controlling for autistic traits – so treating each person as if they had the same level of autistic traits.
8. Autistic folks still camo more than non-autistic, suggesting it’s also about the experience of being (seen as) autistic, rather than the presence of autistic traits alone that drives camo.
9. Autistic women still camo more than men, with no difference between NB folks and other genders. There were no gender differences in the non-autistic sample. See the paper for more detail about results for each of the CAT-Q subscales.
10. This suggests that there is something about being autistic and female that increases motivation/expectation/ability to camo. It may reflect different social pressures, innate abilities, or awareness of camo – we don’t know why this difference exists.
11. This may lead autistic women and girls to appear ‘less autistic’, particularly when being first assessed for autism, and so find it harder to get a diagnosis (doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac…).
12. BUT it is also really important to stress that autistic men and NB folks also camo at high levels. All these groups are therefore at risk of mental health problems, lack of support, or missing out on diagnosis because of camo (doi.org/10.1007/s10803…).
13. Limitations: we didn’t include self-diagnosed autistic people, who are the most likely to camo if they experience autistic traits but didn’t get a formal diagnosis. The number of NB folks was small, so differences might not have been picked up.
14. Limitations (cont’d): Autistic participants were on average diagnosed in adulthood, so we can’t generalise the results to those diagnosed earlier. We also can’t generalise to those who can’t complete online questionnaires in English.
15. Conclusions: Camo is a real thing that lots of autistic people do. Autistic women camo at even higher levels, which may partly explain why it can be harder to get a diagnosis. But autistic people of all genders camo at high levels, and so are at risk of negative consequences.
16. Next steps: Learn more about camo in other groups (including teens/children). Find out exactly if/how camo affects autism diagnosis or assessment of support needs. Compare different ways of measuring camo.
Thread done! Again, the paper is here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…. Any questions, contact me.
