Linking Social Camouflaging and Mental Health in Autistic Adolescents
The Role of Stigma
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15173/cjae.v6i1.6910Keywords:
social camouflaging, adolescents, autism, internalized stigma, mental healthAbstract
Background: Autistic individuals are subject to social stigma due to their identity-based minority status. To avoid stigmatization, some Autistic individuals engage in social camouflaging (SC), in which a person utilizes cognitive and/or behavioural strategies to conceal their autistic traits and compensate for socio-cognitive differences. SC is linked with poorer mental health outcomes in Autistic people; similar patterns have been found between internalized stigma and mental health among those with concealable minority statuses (e.g., sexual identity). There is limited understanding as to why adolescents use SC, so we examined the potential role of internalized stigma in explaining SC’s effects on mental health (i.e., anxiety and depressive symptoms). We hypothesized that the association between SC and mental health is mediated by internalized stigma. Method: Preliminary testing of our hypothesis was conducted using a small pilot sample of Autistic adolescents (n = 9). Results: Preliminary analyses suggested that SC was significantly associated with internalized stigma and mental health. Conclusions: Use of SC by Autistic adolescents may partially contribute to greater levels of internalized stigma, which may then have negative impacts on mental health. Given the preliminary nature of the findings and small sample size, research with larger samples of Autistic adolescents is needed to further disentangle these associations and replicate findings.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Kai Punt, Dr. Megan E. Ames, Yaewon Kim, Jessica Klein, Rachel L. Krahn, Jonathan Rush, Tristan Rendell, Carly A. McMorris, Sarah Macoun
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