Exploring autistic adults' psychosocial experiences affecting beginnings, continuity and change in camouflaging over time: A qualitative study in Singapore.
Autistic adults often start masking in childhood to dodge bullying and later see the mask as part of themselves.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Loo et al. (2024) talked with autistic adults in Singapore. They asked how and why these adults started hiding their autism.
The team used long interviews. People told stories about childhood, school, and work.
What they found
Most adults said masking began early. They copied others to make friends and stop bullies.
Over years the act grew smoother. Some said camouflage became 'just who I am.'
How this fits with other research
Kim et al. (2024) match these stories. Korean autistic adults also trace masking to school bullying driven by academic pressure. The Korea paper extends Yi’s findings by showing a culture of elitism keeps the bullying alive.
Kiep et al. (2017) watched girls with ASD on the playground. The girls stayed near peers and weaved into games, already hiding struggle. That recess trick is the childhood version of the grown-up masks Yi describes.
Gracia et al. (2026) looked at women with ASD and borderline personality. Both groups masked alike, so diagnosis can be missed. Yi’s focus on identity change backs up Gracia’s warning: without gender-sensitive questions, clinicians can confuse conditions.
Why it matters
If you teach social skills, ask who is hiding pain to fit in. Build chances for clients to drop the mask safely. Push schools and employers toward real acceptance, not just awareness. Less pressure to camouflage may protect mental health and self-esteem.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Over their lifetimes, many autistic people learn to camouflage (hide or mask) their autism-related differences to forge relationships, find work and live independently in largely non-autistic societies. Autistic adults have described camouflaging as a 'lifetime of conditioning . . . to act normal' involving 'years of effort', suggesting that camouflaging develops over an autistic person's lifetime and may start early on, in childhood or adolescence. Yet, we know very little about why and how autistic people start to camouflage, or why and how their camouflaging behaviours continue or change over time. We interviewed 11 Singaporean autistic adults (9 male, 2 female, 22-45 years old) who shared their camouflaging experiences. We found that autistic adults' earliest motivations to camouflage were largely related to the desire to fit in and connect with others. They also camouflaged to avoid difficult social experiences (such as being teased or bullied). Autistic adults shared that their camouflaging behaviours became more complex and that, for some, camouflaging became a part of their self-identity over time. Our findings suggest that society should not pathologise autistic differences, but instead accept and include autistic people, to reduce the pressure on autistic people to hide who they truly are.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2024 · doi:10.1177/13623613231180075