Consolidating a framework of autistic camouflaging strategies: An integrative systematic review

Autistic 'social camouflaging' research is proliferating. However, the term is multi-definitional. Our integrative systematic review (CRD42022324957) pursued a single-framework, qualitative meta-synthesis of camouflaging in autistic adults. We report specifically on different types of camouflaging strategies and the contextual factors that moderate them. A total of 2346 articles were extracted from online databases, 'Connected Papers' and citation searching - reflecting qualitative data from diagnostically confirmed, or self-identifying, autistic individuals. The results of 28 studies were coded and thematically synthesised, and included 2669 men, women and non-binary individuals above the age of 16. We noted six types of strategies and four contextual factors that modulate them. 'Imitation' played a notable role in facilitating further learning and development of camouflaging strategies, thus shifting one from behavioural suppression to sophisticated compensations. The results encourage researchers to place camouflaging data within this (or other) frameworks. Limitations include data reflecting only a subset of the autistic community, skewed towards women and the United Kingdom, raising questions about the impact that gender and UK culture has on our current understanding of camouflaging.Lay abstractResearch into autistic 'social camouflaging' is gaining momentum. However, with so many different definitions, the term needs better clarification. We thus reviewed existing articles that discuss camouflaging, in order to bring all of the different understandings of adult autistic camouflaging together into a single framework. This article focuses on findings related to different types of camouflaging strategies, and the types of situations that help or hinder individuals when they use such strategies. After screening 2346 articles (which were listed on online research databases) - we arrived at 28 articles that were included in this study. Data were based on the personal reports of 2669 adults (over the age of 16 years) with confirmed, or self-identified, autism. These reports were in English, qualitative, published papers. We noted six types of camouflaging strategies, and four situational factors that influence them. 'Imitation' was noted as a key means by which strategies develop. The results encourage researchers to build on frameworks such as ours. We also found that much of the sample consisted of women from the United Kingdom, and thus, there is a question of how much influence UK culture has on our current picture of camouflaging.