Emotional regulation in early childhood is crucial for social-emotional competence and academic success. While parenting plays a role in developing these skills, the bidirectional relationships between parenting behavior and emotional regulation over time, particularly involving fathers and neurodivergent children, remain underexplored. This study examined parent-driven and child-driven effects between parenting (warmth, laxness, and overreactivity) and child emotional regulation across four time points in 143 children (52.4% female) from age 3 to 6, with child gender and family income as covariates. Using four-wave random intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPM), we conducted separate analyses for mothers and fathers. Baseline results showed that maternal warmth at age 3 positively predicted emotional regulation at age 4, while paternal overreactivity at age 5 negatively predicted emotional regulation at age 6. In moderated models, both parent-driven and child-driven effects emerged, varying by children's autistic traits. Among children with higher autistic traits, parent-driven effects were more pronounced, with maternal warmth at age 3 and maternal laxness at age 4 strongly influencing emotional regulation. Conversely, among children with lower autistic traits, emotional regulation at age 3 strongly predicted increased maternal warmth at age 4. These findings highlight the significance of positive parenting in promoting emotional regulation, especially for children with higher autistic traits. Conversely, they also emphasize the role of strong emotional regulation in encouraging positive parenting, particularly for children with lower autistic traits. This suggests that interventions should aim to enhance both parenting strategies and children's emotional regulation skills.