BACKGROUND There is growing recognition that some autistic people engage in 'compensation', showing few behavioural symptoms (e.g. neurotypical social skills), despite continuing to experience autism-related cognitive difficulties (e.g. difficulties in social cognition). One way this might be achieved is by individuals consciously employing 'compensatory strategies' during everyday social interaction. However, very little is currently known about the broad range of these strategies, their mechanisms and consequences for clinical presentation and diagnosis. METHODS We aimed to measure compensatory strategies in autism for the first time. Using a novel checklist, we quantified self-reported social compensatory strategies in 117 adults (58 with autism, 59 without autism) and explored the relationships between compensation scores and autism diagnostic status, autistic traits, education level, sex and age at diagnosis. RESULTS Higher compensation scores-representing a greater repertoire of compensatory strategies-were associated with having an autism diagnosis, more autistic traits and a higher education level. The link between autism diagnostic status and compensation scores was, however, explained by autistic traits and education level. Compensation scores were unrelated to sex or age at diagnosis. LIMITATIONS Our sample was self-selected and predominantly comprised of intellectually able females; therefore, our findings may not generalise to the wider autistic population. CONCLUSIONS Together, our findings suggest that many intellectually able adults, with and without a clinical diagnosis of autism, report using compensatory strategies to modify their social behaviour. We discuss the clinical utility of measuring self-reported compensation (e.g., using our checklist), with important implications for the accurate diagnosis and management of autism and related conditions.

中文翻译：

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在有或没有自闭症的成年人中量化补偿策略。

背景技术越来越多的认识到，尽管自闭症患者继续遭受与自闭症相关的认知困难（例如，社会认知方面的困难），但仍表现出一些行为症状（例如，神经性典型的社交技巧）而很少表现出“补偿”。实现此目标的一种方法是，个人在日常社交互动中有意识地采用“补偿策略”。但是，目前对这些策略的广泛范围，其机制以及对临床表现和诊断的影响知之甚少。方法我们旨在首次测量自闭症的补偿策略。使用新颖的清单，我们对117位成人（其中58位患有自闭症，59（没有自闭症），并探讨了补偿分数与自闭症的诊断状态，自闭症特征，受教育程度，性别和诊断年龄之间的关系。结果较高的薪酬分数（代表更大的补偿策略）与自闭症诊断，更多的自闭症特征和较高的教育水平相关。但是，自闭症的特征和受教育程度可以解释自闭症的诊断状态和补偿分数之间的联系。补偿分数与诊断时的性别或年龄无关。局限性我们的样本是自选的，主要由具有智力的女性组成。因此，我们的发现可能无法推广到更广泛的自闭症人群。结论我们的研究结果表明，许多有智力的成年人，不论是否有自闭症的临床诊断，均应使用补偿策略来报告其社交行为。我们讨论了测量自我报告的补偿的临床效用（例如，使用我们的清单），对自闭症及相关疾病的准确诊断和管理具有重要意义。