LAUSR

Objectives This study examined associations between child disability and parent-reported overparenting, autonomy granting, and affect management among a purposeful sample of parents whose children attended a camp serving early adolescents with disabilities or a camp serving early adolescents without disabilities. Methods 868 parents completed a post-camp online questionnaire designed to measure overparenting, autonomy granting, and affect management. The measure’s factor structure and model fit were examined through Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and the relations between variables were tested using a Structural Equation Model (SEM). Results Parents of children attending the camp serving early adolescents with disabilities reported higher levels of overparenting as compared to parents of early adolescents without a disability. Further, overparenting had a positive effect on affect management, but not on autonomy granting. Finally, disability status did not have a statistically significant negative effect on affect management or autonomy granting. Conclusions Overparenting appears at higher rates among parents of early adolescents with disabilities, which may reflect overparenting as normative for parents with children with disabilities. Such overparenting behaviors may support children with disabilities to perform more consistently when compared to their peers.