Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine if parents receiving emotional support is positively correlated with children’s participation in physical and social activities and if such a correlation exists between parental emotional support in children labeled as autistic. Data were drawn from 30,501 children aged 6 to 17 years in the 2020 National Survey of Children’s Health database and analyzed using a retrospective cross-sectional approach based on multivariate linear regression models. Results showed parental emotional support was statistically significantly correlated with children’s physical and social activity in the total sample but was not significant for the emotional support of parents with autistic children. The findings suggest that other issues must be considered as contributing factors for parents of autistic children in relation to social and physical activity participation.
Acknowledgements
The study data set and survey questionnaire are available on the DRC website at www.childhealthdata.org. The authors would like to thank other members of the research team for their efforts, including Ms. Suyeong Bae and Mr. Sanghun Nam.
Declaration of Interest
The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this paper.
Notes
1 Because autistic individuals, advocates, and scholars assert that person-first language (e.g., individual with autism) reflects an ableist perspective and contributes to disability stigma (Bottema-Beutel et al, Citation2021; Gernsbacher, Citation2017), authors will adhere to identity-first language (e.g., autistic individual) throughout this paper.