Exploring the construct validity of the Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire: A factor analytic study.

No autistic adults with verbal or intellectual impairments were included, so the results do not show how the questionnaire performs for those people. The sample was mostly White (238 of 308) and mostly female (189 of 308), so replication in more diverse autistic samples is needed. The paper states that 93% of participants were above general population social anxiety cut-offs, higher than the 51% rate from a meta-analysis cited in the paper, so the sample may not represent autistic adults with lower social anxiety. The study used self-report questionnaires and exploratory factor analyses, so it tested measurement relationships, not whether camouflaging causes anxiety or whether a treatment works. The Assimilation subscale was less distinct from autistic social traits items, so its scores may be harder to interpret as camouflaging alone.

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest. The study was funded by a University of Western Australia start-up grant to the senior author (PG10301041), and D.W.T. was supported by a Macquarie University Research Fellowship (MQRF0001113).

Do not treat the camouflaging questionnaire as a validated diagnostic tool for every autistic adult, or assume the Assimilation subscale measures only camouflaging. The sample excluded autistic adults with verbal or intellectual impairments, was mostly White and female, and the Assimilation items overlapped with autistic social traits items.