Infant Effortful Control Mediates Relations Between Nondirective Parenting and Internalising-Related Child Behaviours in an Autism-Enriched Infant Cohort.

The study relied on parent-report measures for temperament and internalising symptoms, which may be influenced by parental psychopathology or shared method variance. The sample size for the typical-likelihood control group (44 infants) was modest, limiting the ability to test generalisability to typically developing children. The direction of causality between parenting and child self-regulation could not be definitively established; it is unclear if nondirective parenting causes better effortful control or if children with early signs of effortful control elicit less directive parenting. The mediating effect of effortful control was not robust to the exclusion of children diagnosed with ASD, suggesting the findings may apply specifically to the subgroup with later diagnoses rather than the broader at-risk population.

The authors declared no specific conflicts of interest in the provided text, but noted that a subset of participants (22 infants) had previously participated in a separate randomised controlled trial of a parent-mediated early intervention programme, which was controlled for in the analysis.

Do not interpret the mediating role of effortful control as evidence that nondirective parenting prevents anxiety in all at-risk infants. The effect disappeared when children who were later diagnosed with autism were excluded, meaning the finding is specific to that subgroup and may reflect the severity of their condition rather than a general protective mechanism.