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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...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2023
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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. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10482295 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
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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