Who Am I: The Balance Between Masking and Identity

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

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Burns, T. M. & Botha, M. (2025). Who Am I: The Balance Between Masking and Identity. Autism in Adulthood. https://doi.org/10.1177/25739581251365476

Journal or book title
Autism in Adulthood
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Article number
25739581251365476
Publication date: 29 Sep 2025 Added to AutiHub: 5 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) OpenAlex source

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
2
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 2 (50.0%)
  1. Taylor M. Burns
  2. Monique Botha *

Abstract

Background: Autistic people experience worse mental health outcomes than non-autistic people. Masking (concealing autistic traits) is found to relate to poor mental health. Research shows that autistic people indicate relationships between masking and difficulties creating or maintaining a sense of identity. Personal identity is rarely studied within autism research. This study aims to bridge this gap by exploring the connection between identity formation difficulties (both social and personal) and its impact on poor mental health in autistic people. It examines levels of identity conflict and distress in autistic and non-autistic people and whether identity distress mediates and identity conflict moderates the relationship between masking and psychological distress. Method: Data were collected for autistic ( n = 139) and non-autistic people ( n = 133) using an online survey. Results: Autistic people were found to experience higher levels of identity distress, conflict, and psychological distress. Identity distress represents a full mediation of the relationship between masking and psychological distress in the autistic cohort, but a partial mediation in the non-autistic cohort. Identity conflict did not moderate any relationships within the model for either cohort. However, it did have a significant direct relationship with masking identity distress and psychological distress. Conclusions: These findings suggest that autistic people may experience worse mental health outcomes due to difficulties with cohesive identity formation. Additional research into the role of autism in identity development may identify other areas in which identity difficulties negatively impact autistic people, such as long-term planning and suicidality.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 2 Oct 2026 17:07.

Cited references
48
With a DOI
42
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
6
13 / 48 (27.1%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
4 / 48 (8.3%)
References with detected author names
44 / 48 (91.7%)
Without detected author names
4
Without a structured title
4
Without a stable identifier
6
References with raw author names still to review
4
References with external metadata lookup issues
1
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
177
From DOI or external metadata
177
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
4
100 / 177 (56.5%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 77 / 177 (43.5%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
26 / 177 (14.7%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 26 / 100 (26.0%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 18 / 140 (12.9%).
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