Exploring the construct validity of the Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire: A factor analytic study
Authors: McKinnon Katharine , Bougoure Mackenzie , Zhuang Sici , Tan Diana Weiting , Magiati Iliana 
Published: November 2024

‘Camouflaging’ is a set of strategies used by autistic people to hide or compensate for their autistic characteristics to fit into predominantly non-autistic social environments. Many researchers have used the Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire (CAT-Q) to measure camouflaging. However, there have been questions about the construct validity of the CAT-Q as a measurement of camouflaging. The present study examined the extent to which CAT-Q items were distinguishable from other theoretically and empirically related measures of social anxiety, fear of negative evaluation and autistic social traits. Autistic adults ( N = 308) completed the CAT-Q and social anxiety, fear of negative evaluation and autistic social traits measures. The small-to-large positive associations between camouflaging and social anxiety, fear of negative evaluation and autistic social traits ( r = 0.14–0.65) were not indicative of collinearity. Three exploratory factor analyses, in which CAT-Q items were factor-analysed together with social anxiety, fear of negative evaluation and autistic social traits items respectively, showed that CAT-Q items generally loaded onto different factors from social anxiety, fear of negative evaluation and autistic social traits items, with the exception of the CAT-Q Assimilation subscale items, which cross-loaded mostly with autistic social traits items. Overall, the CAT-Q items were positively associated with, but also differentiated from, most social anxiety, fear of negative evaluation and autistic social traits items, providing support for the measure’s construct validity.

Lay abstract

Autistic people describe having to mask or ‘camouflage’ their autistic selves to fit into certain social settings. Many researchers have used the CAT-Q to measure the extent to which autistic people engage in camouflaging. However, some researchers have questioned whether the CAT-Q measures camouflaging or whether it measures other related experiences and behaviours associated with social anxiety, fear of being negatively judged or social autistic traits. In our study, we analysed the CAT-Q to check whether it is indeed similar to or different from these related experiences. To do this, we asked 308 autistic adults to complete the CAT-Q and questionnaires about social anxiety, fear of being negatively judged and autistic social features. Then, we put all the CAT-Q items together with the items from each of the other measures in three separate analyses (called factor analyses) to see how the items would group together. These analyses showed us whether camouflaging behaviours are distinguishable and different from, or cluster together with, these other experiences. We found that most of CAT-Q items grouped together separately from the other measures’ items, suggesting that camouflaging differs from these other related experiences. Only some items from one of the CAT-Q subscales clustered together with some social anxiety and autistic items, suggesting these may need to be teased out better in the future. Generally, our findings show that we can use the CAT-Q to measure camouflaging behaviours among autistic people.