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Anyone here take the CAT-Q?

Oran G. Utan

I took the Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire not long ago, and was surprised to find that against the average of 109 for adult males, my average was 149. So I mask considerably more than the average among us. It's given me a lot to think about in terms of how I behave around other people, how I behave around people I trust and am close to, and how I behave when I'm by myself. I'm curious to find out if there are others among us here who have scored similarly high, or higher.

Parents

  • Mine was 135 with compensation 45,  masking 43 and assimilation 47, I've no idea what it all means though, I downloaded the PDF hoping for more information but there wasn't any, how do I find out the meaning of the scores?

  • in reply to TheCatWoman

    Hi Cat, have a look at my post below which gives details of what each section refers to.

  • in reply to Lotus

    Hi Pixie, I did see your post before I posted, but I still don't understand what any of it means, as there's nothing to measure it against, theres no context.  Without context this is about as useful as a Cosmopolitan magazine quiz.

Reply
  • in reply to Lotus

    Hi Pixie, I did see your post before I posted, but I still don't understand what any of it means, as there's nothing to measure it against, theres no context.  Without context this is about as useful as a Cosmopolitan magazine quiz.

Children
  • in reply to TheCatWoman

    Ha ha Slight smile

    No, it means you camouflage in the same way as most other autistic women, when you are in social situations.

    My masking score was wildly different - I think my brain spends so much time doing the compensating thing of learned facial expressions, body language & responding appropriately to social cues that I have no processing space left to think about looking confident or attentive or whether I'm doing eye contact. Sometimes if I'm not engrossed in a conversation or lose the ability to concentrate on the speaker my mind starts wandering and thinking of something else or I start thinking about my eye contact - for example, have I been staring at them too long? - and then I miss a lot of what was said. 

    I have noticed that my partner and I can have long conversations without any eye contact at all.

  • in reply to Lotus

    Wow, does that meean I'm averagely autstic?

  • in reply to TheCatWoman

    It's a tool that can be used to identify autistic individuals who don't meet diagnostic criteria due to their camouflaging behaviours. The results of tests on both autistic and NT participants show that autistic women camouflage the most, NT women the least, and in men and non binary people there is not so much difference. Therefore it appears that women may be more likely not to get a diagnosis due to learned behaviours.

    The test gives an overall score plus 3 sub category scores, as you will have seen.

    Compensation = copying body language, facial expressions, learning social cues, etc.          Average scores in females: Autistic 42,  NT 27

    Masking = Trying to look attentive and appear relaxed & confident, forcing eye contact.   Average scores in females: Autistic 38,  NT 35

    Assimilation = Putting on an act to fit in, avoiding or forcing interaction with others.     Average scores in females: Autistic 45,  NT 29

    So as we are both women we can compare our scores with the average autistic women's scores of 42, 38 and 45.