What is this test for?
The CAT-Q (Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire) quantifies three strategies: compensation (actively learning social codes to make up for difficulties), masking (monitoring and adjusting the image you project) and assimilation (forcing yourself to “pass” in uncomfortable social situations).
Measuring your camouflaging helps make sense of a common paradox: seeming “very sociable” while coming out of interactions drained. It is also a useful piece of an ASD evaluation file — camouflaging explains part of late diagnoses, particularly in women.
Who is it for?
For adults wondering about their relationship to social situations: those who “script” their conversations, consciously imitate others, take a long time to recover after every outing — whether they feel concerned by autism or are simply exhausted by their own coping strategies.
How does it work?
You position yourself on 25 statements (a 7-point agreement scale, as in the original instrument). The official scoring applies — reverse items included — to give a total out of 175 and three sub-scores (compensation, masking, assimilation), compared with published markers. Everything is computed in your browser.
The science behind this test
The CAT-Q was developed and validated by Hull, Mandy, Lai, Baron-Cohen and colleagues (Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2019) with 832 adults. In the validation sample, autistic adults scored an average total of about 120, versus about 87 for non-autistic adults; research often uses the marker of 100 to talk about high camouflaging.
A rare and precious fact: the article is published open access under a Creative Commons BY 4.0 licence, which lets us reproduce the instrument legally, with attribution. Our English wording is done with care but has not undergone a validation study — we say so clearly rather than hide it.
Beware the misreading: the CAT-Q measures a behaviour (camouflaging), not autism. A high score can also reflect significant social anxiety. And intense camouflaging has a documented cost — fatigue, anxiety, a sense of losing your identity — that deserves to be taken seriously regardless of any diagnosis.
Full transparency
A validated instrument (Hull et al., 2019, CC BY 4.0 licence) — but the MoodTrakr English wording is not validated, and no “probability of autism” can be drawn from it: the CAT-Q is not a screening tool.
- Traduction française réalisée par MoodTrakr, fidèle à l’instrument mais non validée (aucune étude de validation française publiée à ce jour).
- Le CAT-Q mesure un comportement (le camouflage), pas un trouble : un score élevé n’est pas un « dépistage positif » d’autisme.
The reference tests used by professionals
This questionnaire replaces none of the tools used in consultation. Here are the ones professionals actually use:
- Évaluation TSA complète (ADOS-2, ADI-R, entretien) — le CAT-Q éclaire le camouflage, il ne détecte pas l’autisme
Frequently asked questions
Does a high CAT-Q score mean I am autistic?
No. The CAT-Q measures how much you camouflage, not why. Autistic adults camouflage much more on average (≈ 120 vs ≈ 87 in the validation study), but social anxiety can also produce high scores. It is a light to bring to a professional, not a verdict.
Why does camouflaging exhaust you so much?
Because it is constant cognitive work: observing, analysing, adjusting your face, your voice, your gestures, holding a role. Research links intense camouflaging to more exhaustion, anxiety and depression, and to a sense of lost identity — hence the importance of spotting it.
Is your English wording official?
No, and we prefer to tell you: to our knowledge there is no published validation specific to our wording. Our version is faithful to the original instrument (published open access under CC BY 4.0), but the numerical markers come from the English-language study.
Where do the markers 87, 100 and 120 come from?
From Hull and colleagues’ validation study (2019): an average of about 87 in non-autistic adults, about 120 in autistic adults; the threshold of 100 is used in the literature as a marker of high camouflaging. These are points of comparison, not diagnostic boundaries.
Sources & methodology
This page draws on the references below — official guidelines, published studies and institutional documents. Every link is checked automatically at each release. Instrument attribution: CAT-Q © Hull, Mandy, Lai, Baron-Cohen, Allison, Smith & Petrides (2019), J Autism Dev Disord 49:819-833 — article en libre accès, licence CC BY 4.0. Traduction française MoodTrakr (non validée).
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