Parenting Practices and Emotional Regulation in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Mediated Moderation Model of Sibling Prosocial Behavior and Gender.
A caring sister makes calm parenting work even better for teaching emotional control to autistic kids.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Imran et al. (2026) asked parents to fill out surveys. They wanted to know if calm, warm parenting helps autistic kids handle emotions.
They also checked if helpful sisters or brothers boost this link. Gender of the sibling was part of the math.
What they found
Kids with autism had better emotional control when parents used firm yet kind rules.
The link was strongest when sisters showed lots of caring, sharing, and helping. Brothers helped too, but sisters gave a bigger lift.
How this fits with other research
Tan et al. (2026) tracked families for two years. They saw that parents who stay calm teach kids to stay calm. Imran adds that a kind sister speeds up this lesson.
Alon (2026) found that optimistic young adults accept their autistic sibling more. Imran shows the payoff starts earlier: child sisters who act nice improve emotion skills right now.
Stephens et al. (2018) saw that older siblings help theory-of-mind only in simplex families. Imran widens the picture: sisters help emotion regulation in a broader sample.
Why it matters
You already coach parents to stay calm and clear. Now invite sisters into the session. Praise their sharing, model turn-taking games, and give them helper roles. A supportive sister can be a live teaching tool for emotional control.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) frequently struggle with emotion regulation, which can be influenced by parental practices and the supportive role of siblings in encouraging emotional and social development. The study aimed to examine the relationship between parenting practices and emotional regulation of children with ASD and to explore the mediating role of the prosocial behavior of siblings between parenting practices and emotional regulation in children with ASD. Additionally, this study investigated the moderating role of sibling gender in the relationship between prosocial behavior and emotional regulation. A total of 600 parents/caregivers aged 25–40 years (M = 32.91, SD = 4.23) of children with ASD were selected from special education institutes in Lahore, Pakistan, using a non-probability, purposive sampling method. Although the majority of respondents were mothers (94.5%), the term parenting practices is used to reflect a family-level caregiving construct rather than exclusively maternal behavior. Data were interpreted through IBM SPSS Statistics 23 and PROCESS macros, revealing that authoritative parenting had a significant positive relation with emotional regulation in children with ASD. Results also indicated that the prosocial behavior of siblings partially mediated the relationship between authoritative parenting and emotional regulation in children with ASD. Furthermore, sibling gender significantly moderated the indirect effect, with female siblings showing stronger facilitation of emotional regulation through prosocial behaviors compared to male siblings.
European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education, 2026 · doi:10.3390/ejihpe16020020