The association between social camouflage and mental health among autistic people in Japan and the UK: a cross-cultural study.
Fumiyo Oshima, Toru Takahashi, Masaki Tamura and 6 others
PMID 38178255WHAT IT FOUND
In Japanese autistic adults, camouflage was linked with anxiety, depression, and well-being in a curved pattern, not a straight-line pattern; the UK sample did not show this.
This is association, not proof.
Key findings
01In Japanese autistic adults, a curved relationship was found between camouflage scores and generalised anxiety, depression, and well-being.
02The curved relationship was not found for social anxiety in the Japanese sample, and it was not found in the UK sample.
03Sex did not change the association between camouflage and mental health in the Japanese sample.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The autistic diagnoses were self-reported, so the study did not confirm autism. The data were cross-sectional, so camouflage and mental health were measured at the same time and cause cannot be established. The Japanese camouflage scores were lower than the original CAT-Q scores, so Japan and the UK may not have measured the same camouflage behaviours in the same way. Well-being was not measured in the UK sample. The sex interaction was tested in the Japanese sample only, and the Japanese survey did not offer a nonbinary option. Participants who gave straight-line responses were included, unlike the original Japanese data cleaning.
Declared interests
The supplied text names the funder as Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that reducing or increasing camouflage will improve mental health. The study measured associations at one time and did not test a camouflage intervention.