Direct and Indirect Links Between Parenting Styles and Emotional and Behavioral Outcomes in Autistic Youth with Moderate-to-High Levels of Functioning: The Mediating Role of Parental Encouragement of Physical Activity

Objectives: The present study examined associations between parenting styles, parental encouragement of physical activity, and emotional and behavioral adjustment among autistic youth. Methods: Participants were 76 parents of school-aged autistic youth (54 boys, 22 girls; Mage = 10.75, SD = 3.67), who reported on their children’s physical activity, anxiety, conduct problems, and related parenting practices. Results: A path model was used to assess patterns of associations among parenting dimensions, parental encouragement of physical activity, and child outcomes. Higher levels of authoritarian and permissive parenting were positively associated with child anxiety and conduct problems, whereas higher levels of authoritative parenting showed a negative association with conduct problems. In addition, parenting dimensions were indirectly associated with child adjustment through parental encouragement of physical activity, which was consistently associated with lower levels of both anxiety and conduct problems. Associations involving children’s physical activity were more limited and not consistently related to the adjustment variables, and therefore played a less central role in the overall pattern of findings, despite its primary association with parental encouragement. Conclusions: These findings highlight the role of parental encouragement as a behavior-specific parenting practice linked to both physical activity and broader aspects of child adjustment. The results contribute to a more nuanced understanding of how parenting styles and practices are associated with emotional and behavioral functioning in autistic youth.