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The workplace masking experiences of autistic, non-autistic neurodivergent and neurotypical adults in the UK

Masking entails hiding or concealing one’s traits during social interactions. Research suggests that masking is particularly common for autistic people, though many non-autistic people also conceal aspects of their identity. Existing research has identified the key motivations and consequences of ma...

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Autores principales: Pryke-Hobbes, Amber, Davies, Jade, Heasman, Brett, Livesey, Adam, Walker, Amy, Pellicano, Elizabeth, Remington, Anna
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10482295/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37672533
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0290001
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author Pryke-Hobbes, Amber
Davies, Jade
Heasman, Brett
Livesey, Adam
Walker, Amy
Pellicano, Elizabeth
Remington, Anna
author_facet Pryke-Hobbes, Amber
Davies, Jade
Heasman, Brett
Livesey, Adam
Walker, Amy
Pellicano, Elizabeth
Remington, Anna
author_sort Pryke-Hobbes, Amber
collection PubMed
description Masking entails hiding or concealing one’s traits during social interactions. Research suggests that masking is particularly common for autistic people, though many non-autistic people also conceal aspects of their identity. Existing research has identified the key motivations and consequences of masking. No research to date, however, has considered how this might be affected by the social context in which masking is employed. This study compared the masking experiences of 285 autistic, 88 non-autistic neurodivergent and 99 neurotypical adults within a context in which masking is expected to be highly prevalent, namely the workplace. We used reflexive thematic analysis to explore the motivations, consequences, and contextual differences of workplace masking compared to other social contexts. Workplace masking was considered by participants in all three groups to be an adaptive response to a range of socially grounded workplace challenges and was usually employed as a strategy to safeguard against the threat of negative social and employment outcomes. Our non-autistic neurodivergent and autistic participants, however, reported experiencing unique pressures to mask, given the limited understanding of neurodiversity in workplaces and society more broadly. These findings have important implications for the wider masking literature and for workplace practice.
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spelling pubmed-104822952023-09-07 The workplace masking experiences of autistic, non-autistic neurodivergent and neurotypical adults in the UK Pryke-Hobbes, Amber Davies, Jade Heasman, Brett Livesey, Adam Walker, Amy Pellicano, Elizabeth Remington, Anna PLoS One Research Article Masking entails hiding or concealing one’s traits during social interactions. Research suggests that masking is particularly common for autistic people, though many non-autistic people also conceal aspects of their identity. Existing research has identified the key motivations and consequences of masking. No research to date, however, has considered how this might be affected by the social context in which masking is employed. This study compared the masking experiences of 285 autistic, 88 non-autistic neurodivergent and 99 neurotypical adults within a context in which masking is expected to be highly prevalent, namely the workplace. We used reflexive thematic analysis to explore the motivations, consequences, and contextual differences of workplace masking compared to other social contexts. Workplace masking was considered by participants in all three groups to be an adaptive response to a range of socially grounded workplace challenges and was usually employed as a strategy to safeguard against the threat of negative social and employment outcomes. Our non-autistic neurodivergent and autistic participants, however, reported experiencing unique pressures to mask, given the limited understanding of neurodiversity in workplaces and society more broadly. These findings have important implications for the wider masking literature and for workplace practice. Public Library of Science 2023-09-06 /pmc/articles/PMC10482295/ /pubmed/37672533 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0290001 Text en © 2023 Pryke-Hobbes et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Pryke-Hobbes, Amber
Davies, Jade
Heasman, Brett
Livesey, Adam
Walker, Amy
Pellicano, Elizabeth
Remington, Anna
The workplace masking experiences of autistic, non-autistic neurodivergent and neurotypical adults in the UK
title The workplace masking experiences of autistic, non-autistic neurodivergent and neurotypical adults in the UK
title_full The workplace masking experiences of autistic, non-autistic neurodivergent and neurotypical adults in the UK
title_fullStr The workplace masking experiences of autistic, non-autistic neurodivergent and neurotypical adults in the UK
title_full_unstemmed The workplace masking experiences of autistic, non-autistic neurodivergent and neurotypical adults in the UK
title_short The workplace masking experiences of autistic, non-autistic neurodivergent and neurotypical adults in the UK
title_sort workplace masking experiences of autistic, non-autistic neurodivergent and neurotypical adults in the uk
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10482295/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37672533
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0290001
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