What We Know and Do Not Know About Camouflaging, Impression Management, and Mental Health and Wellbeing in Autistic People

Khudiakova, V., Alexandrovsky, M., Ai, W., & Lai, M. C. (2024). What We Know and Do Not Know About Camouflaging, Impression Management, and Mental Health and Wellbeing in Autistic People. Autism Research, 18(2), 273-280. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.3299

Publication date: 24 Dec 2024 Added to AutiHub: 4 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
4
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 4 (25.0%)

Abstract

Camouflaging is an impression management strategy employed by some autistic people, widely seen as a response to the pervasive stigma surrounding autism in society. Autistic narratives and lived experiences consistently link camouflaging to anxiety, depression, suicide risks, and autistic burnout. Quantitative research is yet to determine the nature of these relationships, with a significant portion of recent studies providing inconsistent evidence. While camouflaging can be a compelled survival strategy in social environments, it might also contribute to positive outcomes such as securing employment and forming positive social relationships, implicating a complex interrelationship with mental health and wellbeing. We advocate for using a transactional impression management framework to understand camouflaging and wellbeing and address the inconsistencies in research. Through examining the transactions among a person's individual and cognitive characteristics, behavior modification strategies, and the particular social contexts they find themselves in, this framework guides new empirical research directions to delineate the relationships between camouflaging, impression management, mental health, and wellbeing. There is a need to develop multiple measures of camouflaging that delineate the motivations, ability, effortfulness, and perceived effectiveness of camouflaging and examine how a person's social behaviors are perceived in different social environments. Research should also focus on intersectionality, sociocultural influences, and diverse autistic voices to study context-sensitive camouflaging experiences across the autistic population.

Bibliography cited by this reference

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

Bibliography inclusion overview

These indicators describe the cited bibliography imported for this publication. Cited-reference metrics use the cited-reference total as denominator. Cited-author metrics state whether they use all cited-author occurrences or only occurrences linked to authors already integrated in the AutiHub database. They use cached links between cited authors and authors integrated in the AutiHub database. Last computed: 16 Aug 2026 11:30.

Cited references
65
Total cited references integrated for this publication.
Cited references with an identified autistic author
5 / 65 (7.7%)
Cited author occurrences identified as autistic
8 / 259 (3.1%)
Among occurrences linked to AutiHub author records: 8 / 107 (7.5%). Distinct cited authors identified as autistic: 8 / 201 (4.0%).
Cited author occurrences linked to AutiHub author records
107 / 259 (41.3%)
Distinct linked cited authors: 62 / 201 (30.8%)
Linked cited-author occurrences not identified as autistic
99 / 107 (92.5%)
Among linked cited-author occurrences only. Across all cited-author occurrences: 99 / 259 (38.2%). Distinct linked cited authors not identified as autistic: 54 / 62 (87.1%).
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