"Do My Friends Only Like the School Me or the True Me?": School Belonging, Camouflaging, and Anxiety in Autistic Students

Overview

Journal J Autism Dev Disord

Publisher Springer

Date 2025 Jan 8

PMID 39776106

Authors

Elizabeth Atkinson

Sarah Wright

Henry Wood-Downie

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Purpose: The current research explores whether the relationship between school belonging and anxiety in secondary-aged autistic students is mediated by camouflaging.

Methods: An anonymous online survey was completed by 72 autistic students attending mainstream schools in the UK and Ireland. The survey included questionnaires about school belonging (simple sense of belonging scale), anxiety (ASC-ASD) and camouflaging traits (CAT-Q). Further, the survey included open-ended questions about environmental factors related to school belonging and camouflaging. Qualitative content analysis was used to interpret answers to open ended questions.

Results: The results found that, as predicted, camouflaging did mediate the relationship between school belonging and anxiety. Categories were created for each question, for example, 'the school environment' and 'acceptance and understanding'.

Conclusion: Social relationships; individual factors; the environment and adaptations, and acceptance and understanding, influence students' sense of belonging.

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