Camouflaging in Autistic and Non-autistic Adolescents in the Modern Context of Social Media.
Autistic teens camouflage less on social media than at school—check both settings before you plan support.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team asked autistic and non-autistic teens how much they camouflage. They compared face-to-face life with social media life.
Kids answered a short camouflage quiz for each setting. Girls and boys were counted separately.
What they found
Autistic teens reported more masking offline than their non-autistic peers. On social media they still masked, but less than in real life.
Girls in both groups said they camouflage more than boys.
How this fits with other research
Day et al. (2021) showed more camouflage links to more depression and anxiety in the same age group. Alicja’s 2022 data fit that picture: autistic teens who juggle offline masks may carry heavier internal loads.
Delgado-Lobete et al. (2020) first spotted the girl-boy gap in adults. The new study proves the gap starts young and holds online.
Anonymous (2024) built an adult model: fear of being judged drives masking. Alicja extends this to teens and adds a setting switch—online feels safer, so camouflage drops.
Chen et al. (2024) found better coping cuts social anxiety, yet kids still feel incompetent. Alicja’s lower online camouflage may explain why: screens give teens space to cope without full masking.
Why it matters
Ask about both settings in your intake. A teen who looks fine on Instagram may still crash after a school day of masking. Build separate support plans: teach offline self-advocacy and celebrate online spaces where they drop the mask.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Camouflaging is described as a set of strategies used to prevent others from noticing one's social difficulties. Research indicates heightened levels of camouflaging behaviours in the adult autistic population. To extend understanding of camouflaging in adolescents, this mixed-methods study explored camouflaging behaviours in offline and online contexts with 40 autistic and 158 non-autistic adolescents. At the quantitative phase, participants completed measures of camouflaging behaviours (online vs offline) and measures of social media use. Following this, six autistic adolescents participated in semi-structured interviews. Findings indicate that in the offline context, autistic adolescents camouflage more than non-autistic adolescents. Online, autistic participants camouflage less than they do offline, and females camouflage more than males. Implications for research and theory are discussed.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2022 · doi:10.1007/BF01046103