Reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the camouflaging autistic traits questionnaire

Minako Hongo; Fumiyo Oshima; Siqing Guan; Toru Takahashi; Yusuke Nitta; Mikuko Seto; Laura Hull; William Mandy; Toshiyuki Ohtani; Masaki Tamura; Eiji Shimizu

doi:10.1002/aur.3137

Reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the camouflaging autistic traits questionnaire

Autism Res. 2024 Apr 25. doi: 10.1002/aur.3137. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Minako Hongo¹, Fumiyo Oshima^{1

2}, Siqing Guan³, Toru Takahashi^{4

5}, Yusuke Nitta¹, Mikuko Seto¹, Laura Hull⁶, William Mandy⁷, Toshiyuki Ohtani^{2

8}, Masaki Tamura⁹, Eiji Shimizu^{1

2

9}

Affiliations

¹ Research Center for Child Mental Development, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan.
² United Graduate School of Child Development, Osaka University, Kanazawa University; Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Chiba University, and University of Fukui, Osaka, Japan.
³ Graduate School of Human Sciences, Waseda University, Saitama, Japan.
⁴ Laureate Insutitute for Brain Research, Tulsa, USA.
⁵ Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, Japan.
⁶ Centre for Academic Mental Health, Department of Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
⁷ Reserch Department for Clinial, Educational & Health Psychology, University College London, London, UK.
⁸ Safety and Health Organization, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan.
⁹ Department of Cognitive Behavioral Physiology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan.

PMID: 38661257
DOI: 10.1002/aur.3137

Abstract

This study investigated the factor structure and determined the reliability and validity of the Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire-Japanese version (CAT-Q-J) among 204 autistic and 410 non-autistic people. Since a confirmatory factor analysis revealed no factor validity of the CAT-Q-J for both autistic and non-autistic adults, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted to ensure the psychometric properties matched those of the original scale as much as possible. The results showed the CAT-Q-J comprised three subscales, a four-item compensation subscale, a five-item masking scale, and a five-item assimilation subscale. The overall CAT-Q-J and all three subscales showed sufficient internal consistency and moderate-to-good and stable test-retest reliability in both the autistic and non-autistic samples. Convergent validity was also supported by the correlations found with measures of autistic traits, well-being, anxiety, and depression. Different from the original CAT-Q, compensation/masking for the autistic sample was not correlated with mental health or autistic traits. The reliability and the validity of the overall CAT-Q-J were confirmed; however, caution should be exercised when interpreting its subscales.

Keywords: Japan; autism; factor analyses; social camouflaging; validation study.

Abstract

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