McQuaid Goldie A, Lee Nancy Raitano, Wallace Gregory L
George Mason University, USA.
Drexel University, USA.
Autism. 2025 Aug;29(8):2137-2150. doi: 10.1177/13623613251335738. Epub 2025 Apr 30.
Masking can include suppressing or concealing certain behaviors to appear "non-autistic" and is one response to the excess social stressors of being a neurominority in a neurotypical-majority society. It is important to understand how persons who are multiply marginalized (e.g. an autistic person assigned female sex at birth who is bisexual), who experience multiple layers of excess social stressors, may face additional pressures to conceal their authentic selves. Autistic persons may be more likely than neurotypical persons to identify with a sexual minority orientation, such as asexual, bisexual, gay or pansexual. To advance our understanding of how marginalized identities may be associated with masking, we examined self-reported masking using the Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire in a sample of autistic adults ( = 462). After matching participants for assigned sex at birth and age, and after controlling for these effects in modeling, we found that sexual minority autistic adults reported significantly higher levels of masking relative to heterosexual autistic adults. We situate these findings within literatures on masking, minority stress, and stigma.Lay AbstractMasking can include hiding certain behaviors to appear "non-autistic." Masking is one response to the stress of being autistic in a non-autistic world. Being autistic is only one part of someone's identity, though. Other parts of a person's identity include things like a person's sexual orientation. Autistic people are more likely than non-autistic people to have a sexual orientation other than heterosexual, like asexual, bisexual, gay, or pansexual. People who are both autistic and a sexual minority may experience social stress because of different pressures from society. These different pressures may mean sexual minority autistic adults feel pressured to social camouflage more than heterosexual autistic adults. Thus, we compared masking in sexual minority autistic and heterosexual autistic adults. In the statistical models, we controlled for two other factors that may impact masking: sex assigned at birth and age. We found that sexual minority autistic adults reported significantly higher levels of masking relative to heterosexual autistic adults. We discuss how these findings fit within previous research on masking and minority stress.
伪装可能包括抑制或隐藏某些行为以显得“非自闭症”，这是在以神经典型者为主的社会中作为神经少数群体应对过多社会压力源的一种反应。重要的是要理解那些多重边缘化的人（例如出生时被认定为女性的双性恋自闭症患者），他们经历了多层额外的社会压力源，可能会面临更多隐藏真实自我的压力。自闭症患者可能比神经典型者更有可能认同性少数取向，如无性恋、双性恋、同性恋或泛性恋。为了加深我们对边缘化身份与伪装之间可能存在的关联的理解，我们在一个自闭症成年人样本（n = 462）中使用伪装自闭症特征问卷对自我报告的伪装情况进行了研究。在根据出生时被认定的性别和年龄对参与者进行匹配，并在建模中控制这些影响因素之后，我们发现性少数自闭症成年人相对于异性恋自闭症成年人报告的伪装水平显著更高。我们将这些发现置于关于伪装、少数群体压力和污名化的文献背景中进行探讨。
伪装可能包括隐藏某些行为以显得“非自闭症”。伪装是在非自闭症的世界中作为自闭症患者应对压力的一种反应。然而，自闭症只是一个人身份的一部分。一个人身份的其他部分包括其性取向等方面。自闭症患者比非自闭症患者更有可能拥有非异性恋的性取向，如无性恋、双性恋、同性恋或泛性恋。既是自闭症患者又是性少数群体的人可能会因为来自社会的不同压力而经历社会压力。这些不同的压力可能意味着性少数自闭症成年人比异性恋自闭症成年人感受到更大的社交伪装压力。因此，我们比较了性少数自闭症成年人和异性恋自闭症成年人的伪装情况。在统计模型中，我们控制了另外两个可能影响伪装的因素：出生时被认定的性别和年龄。我们发现性少数自闭症成年人相对于异性恋自闭症成年人报告的伪装水平显著更高。我们讨论了这些发现如何与之前关于伪装和少数群体压力的研究相契合。
