Autism camouflaging screener
The Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire (CAT-Q). 25 questions, around 8 minutes. Runs entirely in your browser, nothing you enter is stored or sent anywhere.
Reviewed by ADHD Scot,
This is not a diagnostic tool. The CAT-Q measures camouflaging behaviours associated with autism, it does not tell you whether you are autistic. A high score does not confirm autism, and a low score does not rule it out. Always speak to a qualified clinician about your own health.
About the CAT-Q
The Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire (CAT-Q) was developed by Laura Hull, Will Mandy, Meng-Chuan Lai, Simon Baron-Cohen, and colleagues at University College London and the University of Cambridge. It measures the degree to which a person engages in camouflaging, actively concealing or compensating for autistic traits in social situations.
The CAT-Q has three subscales. Compensation covers copying others' body language, developing social scripts, and learning social behaviours from observing people or watching television. Masking covers consciously monitoring and adjusting outward behaviour to appear relaxed or engaged. Assimilation covers trying to fit in and suppressing natural responses in social situations. The CAT-Q paper does not set a clinical cutoff: it is a dimensional measure, and higher scores indicate more camouflaging.
The CAT-Q authors note that camouflaging may be widespread in autism, and that autistic females' camouflaging may account for their later and less frequent diagnosis than males with the same autistic characteristics (Hull et al., 2019, summarising earlier research). Camouflaging can reduce how visible autistic traits are in social situations.
Your CAT-Q results
Understanding your subscale scores
What to do next
If reading this has left you feeling distressed, you don't have to sit with it alone. You can talk to someone free, any time, through Breathing Space (0800 83 85 87) or Samaritans (116 123).
After completing the questionnaire
A high CAT-Q score means you report using camouflaging strategies often. It does not by itself tell you why, and it is not a diagnosis.
If your results suggest significant camouflaging, it may be worth discussing this with your GP, particularly if you have also scored above the threshold on the AQ-10 autism screener, or if you have longstanding concerns about autism that have not been explored clinically.
Qualitative research cited by the CAT-Q authors links camouflaging to heightened stress or mental health conditions such as depression, and to reduced access to clinical support when difficulties are hidden (Hull et al., 2019). If you are currently pursuing a formal autism assessment, you may want to mention your CAT-Q results to your assessor.
Source and licence
The CAT-Q is published open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) licence, which permits unrestricted reproduction and adaptation with attribution. No additional permission is required to reproduce this questionnaire.
Citation: Hull L, Mandy W, Lai M-C, Baron-Cohen S, Allison C, Smith P, Petrides KV. Development and Validation of the Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire (CAT-Q). Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 2019;49:819–833. DOI: 10.1007/s10803-018-3792-6