Autistic Traits, Interpersonal Alienation, and Social Camouflaging Among Chinese Adults: A Gender-Based Conditional Process Analysis

BackgroundSocial camouflaging induces many physical and mental health issues for ASD people and neurotypical people with high autistic traits. The general population with high autistic traits is prone to take camouflaging strategies and further face the consequences of social camouflaging. However, previous studies have not revealed the underlying mechanism of why neurotypical people with high autistic traits use social camouflaging.MethodsIn the current study, 463 participants were recruited and completed the Broad Autism Phenotype Questionnaire, the Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire, and the Adolescent Students Alienation Scale.ResultsAutistic traits significantly predicted social camouflaging in the general population. In addition, interpersonal alienation partially mediated the relationship between autistic traits and social camouflaging. Importantly, the mediating effect was moderated by gender. Specifically, gender played a moderating role in the indirect effect between autistic traits and social camouflaging via interpersonal alienation.ConclusionGender differences should be considered when interventions by reducing interpersonal alienation of neurotypical people with autistic traits are targeted to reduce the use and consequences of social camouflaging.