Background:
Autism spectrum disorder exists on a continuum, with individuals at one extreme meeting clinical diagnostic criteria, while others display various subclinical autistic traits and social functioning impairments. This study explores the complex rela-tionships between autistic traits, camouflaging behaviors, fears of negative and positive evaluation, and self-efficacy in adults.

Participants and procedure:
Drawing on a sample of 373 individuals diverse in gender and ethnicity, the paper investigates how camouflaging subscales – compensation, masking, and assimilation – and evaluation fears mediate these relationships. Although participants were diverse in gender identity, the sample was predominantly White, highly educated, and self-selected via social media recruit-ment, which may limit generalizability to more socioeconomically and ethnically diverse autistic populations.

Results:
The results indicated that autistic traits were significantly correlated with fear of negative evaluation, camouflaging strate-gies, fear of positive evaluation, and reduced self-efficacy. Importantly, assimilation emerged as a key camouflaging strate-gy that, through fear of positive evaluation, mediates the negative impact of autistic traits on self-efficacy.

Conclusions:
The findings illuminate the psychological costs of camouflaging, particularly how persistent efforts to “fit in” can elevate anxiety about social judgments and undermine confidence in social competence. The study contextualizes these results with-in social identity theory and the minority stress model, emphasizing the influence of stigma and social expectations on au-tistic individuals’ psychological well-being. These insights underline the importance of recognizing camouflaging’s dual role: essential for social integration yet potentially detrimental to mental health. The paper highlights implications for clinical assessment and interventions targeting self-efficacy and social anxiety in autistic populations.