Milner, Victoria;
Colvert, Emma;
Hull, Laura;
Cook, Julia;
Ali, Dorota;
Mandy, William;
Happé, Francesca;
(2023)
Does camouflaging predict age at autism diagnosis? A comparison of autistic men and women.
Autism Research
10.1002/aur.3059.
(In press).
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Abstract
It is frequently reported that females are likely to receive an autism diagnosis at a later age than their male counterparts, despite similar levels of autistic traits. It has been suggested that this delay in diagnosis may in part reflect the propensity of females, more than males, to engage in camouflaging behaviors that reduce the appearance of autism-related traits. This article presents two studies which examined the relationship between gender/sex, camouflaging, and age at diagnosis in two samples of (cis-gender) autistic adults. Study 1 included data from three online samples including 242 autistic men and 570 autistic women aged 18-75 years. Study 2 included data from a longitudinal population-based sample including 24 autistic men and 35 autistic women aged 20-24 years. Camouflaging was measured with the self-report Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire (CAT-Q). Overall, the results showed that, on average, females were diagnosed later than males. There was a stronger relationship between camouflaging and age at autism diagnosis (AaD) for females, compared with males. Within sample one, there was a significant camouflaging-by-sex interaction; high-camouflaging females had a later AaD. The role of autistic traits and changes in attitudes towards female autism and camouflaging need further exploration. These findings highlight the need for greater clinician and key stakeholder awareness and understanding of camouflaging behavior, particularly for females, during the diagnostic process.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Does camouflaging predict age at autism diagnosis? A comparison of autistic men and women |
| Location: | United States |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1002/aur.3059 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/aur.3059 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2023 The Authors. Autism Research published by International Society for Autism Research and Wiley Periodicals LLC. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Keywords: | age at diagnosis, camouflaging, diagnosis, female autism, sex differences |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Clinical, Edu and Hlth Psychology |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10183799 |
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