"Do My Friends Only Like the School Me or the True Me?": School Belonging, Camouflaging, and Anxiety in Autistic Students.
Elizabeth Atkinson, Sarah Wright, Henry Wood-Downie
PMID 39776106WHAT IT FOUND
Autistic students who feel they do not belong at school are more likely to hide their autistic traits.
This camouflaging is linked to higher anxiety. Creating environments where students feel accepted and safe may reduce the need to mask and lower anxiety levels.
Key findings
01Camouflaging mediates the relationship between low school belonging and higher anxiety in autistic secondary school students.
02Most participants reported they did not feel safe or accepted at school, and most said they could not be their true self.
03Students identified lack of acceptance, understanding, and fear of bullying as primary reasons they could not be their true self at school.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample was small (72 participants) and not fully powered to detect small effects. Participants were recruited via snowballing, which may skew the sample toward those with higher camouflaging or more challenging school experiences. The sample was predominantly White and required a reading age of at least 8, excluding those with significant literacy difficulties. The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot prove that low belonging causes camouflaging or anxiety, only that they are related. Autism traits were reported by parents, which may introduce bias, and camouflaging was self-reported, which measures intent rather than actual behavior.
Declared interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that reducing camouflaging directly reduces anxiety because this is a cross-sectional study. The findings show a statistical relationship where low belonging predicts camouflaging, which predicts anxiety, but they do not prove that interventions targeting camouflaging will lower anxiety. The direction of effect cannot be confirmed from this data alone.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →