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

The prevalence of autistic students in schools is continuously increasing. Typically, the social and sensory differences associated with autism can make the school environment difficult to manage. Autistic students are more likely to experience mental health difficulties than their non-autistic peers. It is therefore important to listen to autistic people about their educational experiences and explore ways that the environment could be changed to reduce anxiety. 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.