CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 123Autism Spectrum Disorder ResearchChild Nutrition and Feeding IssuesGenetics and Neurodevelopmental Disorders

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 78 of the 79 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Understanding and recognising the female phenotype of autism spectrum disorder and the “camouflage” hypothesis: a systematic PRISMA review

Open access
Allely, Clare Sarah·2019·Advances in Autism
DOI 10.1108/aia-09-2018-0036
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

Purpose: Females with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may display superficial social skills which may mask their ASD symptomology impacting on the identification of the disorder – known as the “camouflage” hypothesis. Compared to males with ASD, it is increasingly recognised that females with ASD have a stronger ability to imitate behaviour which is socially acceptable, particularly those females who have higher cognitive abilities (i.e. intelligence considered to be within the normal range) (Ehlers and Gillberg, 1993). The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach: This paper will explore the literature on camouflaging or masking behaviour in females with ASD. A systematic PRISMA review was conducted. Findings: The capacity to “camouflage” social difficulties in social situations is considered to be one of the main features of the female phenotype of ASD (e.g. Kenyon, 2014). Social imitation or camouflaging enables some level of success and coping, which results in some females never receiving a diagnosis of ASD. They typically may not exhibit any observable functional impairments. However, under the surface of the camouflage, females may experience high levels of subjective stress, anxiety and exhaustion and a need to re-charge or recuperate by withdrawing from any social interaction. Research limitations/implications: There is relatively little understanding and knowledge of the female phenotype of ASD. This lack of understanding and knowledge impacts significantly on the ability to identify females with ASD (Lai et al. , 2015; Bargiela et al. , 2016), which can have a number of negative consequence (Adamou et al. , 2018; National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (UK), 2012). Practical implications: There is a need for the development of a camouflaging measure. Originality/value: There is a real need for further research exploring the positive and negative impact of the phenomenon of “camouflaging”, or “pretending to be normal” in females with ASD.

Overview

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1108/aia-09-2018-0036

Cites

78 of 78 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Verification

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Citations

Cites

Show all 79 references

Research works printed but not linked: 4

  1. Exploring the female autism phenotype of repetitive behaviours and restricted interests (RBRIs): a literature review
  2. 2006, Asperger’s and Girls
  3. 2011, Missed diagnosis or misdiagnosis? Girls and women on the autism spectrum, Good Autism Practice (GAP), 12, 34
  4. 2015, Pretending to be Normal: Living with Asperger’s Syndrome (Autism Spectrum Disorder)

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

See all

Metadata

Authors
Allely, C. S.
Affiliations
University of Salford (GB)
Corresponding author
Allely, Clare Sarah
ORCID
Allely, Clare Sarah
Venue
Advances in Autism
Publisher
Emerald
Published
2019-03-12
Volume
5
Issue
1
Pages
14-37
ISSN
2056-3868 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1108/aia-09-2018-0036
OpenAlex
W2906540201
Cited by
123
References
79
Citations by year
2026: 13 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 25 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 6
FWCI
5.96
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Advances in Autism (publishedVersion)
  • University of Salford Institutional Repository (University of Salford) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Child Nutrition and Feeding Issues
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetics and Neurodevelopmental Disorders
Keywords
autism spectrum disorder, female phenotype, camouflaging, social imitation, underdiagnosis, social skills, anxiety, exhaustion, gender differences

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review