An Examination of Perceived Stress and Emotion Regulation Challenges as Mediators of Associations Between Camouflaging and Internalizing Symptomatology

Camouflaging involves the masking of autism traits, potentially creating an outer impression of "non-autisticness." Although associations of camouflaging with anxiety and depression in autistic adults are widely reported, factors that mediate these associations are unclear. We examined two potential mediators of the association between camouflaging and anxiety/depression: perceived stress and emotion regulation (ER) challenges.