In this Papers Podcast, Dr. Jiedi Lei discusses her JCPP paper ‘Understanding the relationship between social camouflaging in autism and safety behaviours in social anxiety in autistic and non-autistic adolescents’ (https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13884). Jiedi is the first author of the paper.
There is an overview of the paper, methodology, key findings, and implications for practice.
Discussion points include:
- The definition of ‘social camouflaging’ and ‘masking’, how it typically manifests, and how it relates to social anxiety in autistic adolescents.
- Safety behaviours in social anxiety in autistic and non-autistic adolescents.
- How participants were recruited and engaged using cartoon-like stop-motion videos.
- Gender differences that emerged.
- Implications of the findings for CAMH professionals and how the findings could inform assessment and treatment of social anxiety disorder for autistic adolescents.
In this series, we speak to authors of papers published in one of ACAMH’s three journals. These are The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (JCPP); The Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMH) journal; and JCPP Advances.
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Dr. Jiedi Lei is a clinical psychologist and autism researcher currently completing a Research Fellowship at the University of Oxford, with a focus on Understanding Strengths-Based Approaches in Supporting Autistic Children and Young People (CYP). Jiedi’s research interests include understanding mechanisms that maintain anxiety disorders such as social anxiety in autistic CYP, with an aim of translating research to inform and improve clinical treatment for anxiety difficulties in this group. Jiedi is currently examining ways of assessing and incorporating character strengths to embody strength-based approach when supporting autistic CYP and their families in mental health settings and beyond. Jiedi has been awarded NIHR Oxford Senior Research Fellowship for her translational research to improve mental health for autistic CYP under the Oxford Health BRC Mental Health in Development Theme.
Other resources
- Open Access paper from Autism ‘Exploring the association between social camouflaging and self- versus caregiver-report discrepancies in anxiety and depressive symptoms in autistic and non-autistic socially anxious adolescents’, (March 2024), Jiedi Lei, Eleanor Leigh, Tony Charman, Ailsa Russell, and Matthew J Hollocks
- Example stop-motion video from the project
