Development and validation of the Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire (CAT-Q)

Camouflaging turned into an instrument --- built from autistic adults' own accounts, and with the same structure holding for autistic and non-autistic respondents alike.

Hull, L. et al. (2019). Development and validation of the Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire (CAT-Q). Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 49(3), 819–833.

Type

Journal article

Find it

doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3792-6

Checked

Against the abstract, 16 September 2026

Why it is on the list

Before this there were no self-report measures of camouflaging at all. The CAT-Q was developed from autistic adults’ own experiences rather than from a clinician’s model, and administered to 354 autistic and 478 non-autistic adults. Exploratory factor analysis suggested three factors across 25 items, with good model fit on confirmatory analysis, internal consistency of α = 0.94 and preliminary test–retest reliability of r = 0.77.

The measurement invariance analyses demonstrated equivalent factor structures across diagnostic group as well as gender. Week 6 uses this when discussing camouflaging across groups. The week does not name the three factors, because the abstract does not.