The Female Autism Phenotype and Camouflaging: a Narrative Review

Hull, Laura; Petrides, K. V.; Mandy, William

doi:10.1007/s40489-020-00197-9

Cited by 346 publications

(319 citation statements)

References 91 publications

(130 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

297

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…This seeming discrepancy may in fact serve as a hint that ED might be particularly related to female-typical manifestations of autism, although this needs to be interpreted cautiously as females are over-represented in our sample and the opposite is true for autism as a diagnosis [84]. Furthermore, as females diagnosed with ASC is a relatively under-studied population that is not well characterized [84][85][86], we suggest that examination of sex differences in future research of ED in autism will be of value.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Empathic disequilibrium in two different measures of empathy predicts autism traits in neurotypical population

Shalev

Uzefovsky

2020

Molecular Autism

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Features of autism spectrum conditions (ASC) are normally distributed within the population, giving rise to the notion of the autism spectrum. One of the hallmark features of ASC is difficulties in social communication, which relies heavily on our ability to empathize with others. Empathy comprises of both cognitive (CE) and emotional (EE) components that, together, allow us to understand another's emotions and be affected by them appropriately, while maintaining a self-other distinction. Although CE and EE depend on distinct neural and developmental trajectories, it was suggested that the two empathic capacities can influence, balance, and regulate each other. Previous findings regarding the role of emotional and cognitive empathy in ASC have been mixed. Therefore, our study aimed to investigate whether the intra-personal empathy imbalance between the cognitive and emotional components, a measure we termed empathic disequilibrium (ED), can be associated with autism traits at the neurotypical range. Methods: Participants were 671 young-adults at the neurotypical range who self-reported their empathy, assessed using two highly validated questionnaires-the Interpersonal Reactivity Index and the Empathy Quotient, autism traits using the Autism-Spectrum Quotient, and the related traits, alexithymia, and systemizing. Results: Controlling for the total empathy score, greater ED was found to be positively correlated with autism traits. Specifically, autism traits were found to be elevated in groups of individuals with relatively higher EE than CE, underscoring their imbalance. Conclusions: Our study offers a novel perspective on the understanding of the social difficulties associated with autism tendencies in the general population and has potentially important clinical implications for understanding of ASC. We also propose a novel characterization of autism tendencies based on the imbalance between EE and CE, which we term ED, as opposed to examining EE and CE separately.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Empathic disequilibrium in two different measures of empathy predicts autism traits in neurotypical population

Shalev

Uzefovsky

2020

Molecular Autism

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Autistic girls and women appear to have overall stronger social motivation compared to autistic boys and men (Sedgewick et al, 2016(Sedgewick et al, , 2019; this could be driven by female sex-specific neurodevelopmental factors (Chawarska et al, 2016;Werling, 2016) and the greater social gender expectations placed on girls and women (Kreiser & White, 2014). Some autistic girls and women may focus on social information, social learning and efforts towards compensatory social coping, which may come at a cost in terms of fatigue and poorer mental health (Hull et al, 2020). The experience of compensatory social coping (e.g.…”

Section: The 'Female Autism Phenotype'mentioning

confidence: 99%

Both sex- and gender-related factors should be considered in autism research and clinical practice

Strang

Miesen

Caplan³

et al. 2020

Autism

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…The female autism phenotype refers to the idea that sex and gender partly influence how autism presents, with females tending to show a sex-or gender-specific behavioral manifestation of autism [Lai, Lombardo, Auyeung, Chakrabarti, & Baron-Cohen, 2015]. The male and female (and other sex-and gender-related) autism phenotypes share many commonalities, but the current literature suggests four key features that are especially characteristic of autism as it presents in girls and women [Hull, Petrides, & Mandy, 2020]. First, on average, autistic females show higher social motivation in comparison to autistic males, demonstrating more interest in friendships and other relationships [Hiller, Young, & Weber, 2014;Sedgewick, Hill, & Pellicano, 2019;Sedgewick, Hill, Yates, Pickering, & Pellicano, 2016].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recognition of Girls on the Autism Spectrum by Primary School Educators: An Experimental Study

et al. 2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Autism has long been considered a predominantly male condition. It is increasingly understood, however, that autistic females are under‐recognized. This may reflect gender stereotyping, whereby symptoms are missed in females, because it is assumed that autism is mainly a male condition. Also, some autistic girls and women may go unrecognized because there is a “female autism phenotype” (i.e., a female‐typical autism presentation), which does not fit current, male‐centric views of autism. Potential biases shown by educators, in their role as gatekeepers for an autism assessment, may represent a barrier to the recognition of autism in females. We used vignettes describing autistic children to test: (a) whether gender stereotyping occurs, whereby educators rate males as more likely to be autistic, compared to females with identical symptoms; (b) whether recognition is affected by sex/gender influences on autistic presentation, whereby children showing the male autism phenotype are rated as more likely to be autistic than those with the female phenotype. Ratings by primary school educators showed a significant main effect of both gender and presentation (male phenotype vs. female phenotype) on estimations of the child in the vignette being autistic: respondents showed a bias against girls and the female autism phenotype. There was also an interaction: female gender had an effect on ratings of the female phenotype, but not on the male phenotype vignette. These findings suggest that primary school educators are less sensitive to autism in girls, through under‐recognition of the female autism phenotype and a higher sensitivity to autism in males. Lay Summary Educators have an important role in identifying children who need an autism assessment, so gaps in their knowledge about how autism presents in girls could contribute to the under‐diagnosis of autistic girls. By asking educators to identify autism when presented with fictional descriptions of children, this study found that educators were less able to recognize what autism “looks like” in girls. Also, when given identical descriptions of autistic boys and girls, educators were more likely to identify autism in boys. These results suggest that primary school educators might need extra help to improve the recognition of girls on the autism spectrum. Autism Res 2020, 13: 1358–1372. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

show abstract

The Female Autism Phenotype and Camouflaging: a Narrative Review

Cited by 346 publications

References 91 publications

Empathic disequilibrium in two different measures of empathy predicts autism traits in neurotypical population

Empathic disequilibrium in two different measures of empathy predicts autism traits in neurotypical population

Both sex- and gender-related factors should be considered in autism research and clinical practice

Recognition of Girls on the Autism Spectrum by Primary School Educators: An Experimental Study

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About