Objective To investigate the interaction effects of hyperactive behaviors in children with autism spectrum disorder（ ASD） and parental self-esteem on parental depressive disorder， along with subgroup differences， so as to provide theoretical support for developing targeted psychological intervention strategies for parents of children with ASD. Methods Parents of all children with ASD who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria and attended outpatient visits at the Fourth People's Hospital of Wuhu from November 2023 to February 2025 were consecutively enrolled. Concurrently， convenience sampling was used to sequentially recruit 273 parents of children with ASD who were diagnosed at the Fourth People's Hospital of Wuhu or had a diagnosis documentation from a Class Ⅲ Grade A psychiatric hospital and voluntarily participated in the study. General Information Questionnaire， Self-Rating Depression Scale（ SDS）， Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale （RSES）， and Swanson， Nolan and Pelham， Version IV（ SNAP- Ⅳ） were used to assess demographic data， children's hyperactive behaviors， parental depressive symptoms， and self-esteem levels， respectively. The χ2 test was performed using SPSS 26.0. Stratified binary Logistic regression analysis was conducted to examine the independent effects， interaction effects， and subgroup differences between hyperactive behaviors in children with ASD and parental self-esteem on parental depressive symptoms. Results Among 273 parents of children with ASD， 167（61.2%，167/273） exhibited depressive symptoms. Univariate analysis revealed statistically significant differences in the incidence of depressive symptoms among parents of children with ASD across various factors， including parental self-esteem levels， questionnaire respondents， monthly household income， child's school type， educational attainment， and children's hyperactive behavior（ all P ＜ 0.05）. Regression analysis showed that both children's hyperactive behavior and parental low self-esteem increased the risk of parental depressive disorder， and the risk of depressive disorder among mothers of these children was 2.288 times higher than that among fathers， with a statistically significant difference（ P ＜ 0.01）. Subgroup analysis revealed that in the male pediatric subgroup， hyperactive behavior significantly increased the risk of parental depressive disorder by 4.831 times， with a statistically significant difference（ P ＜ 0.01）. Interaction effect analysis showed a statistically significant positive additive interaction effect between children's hyperactive behavior and parental low self-esteem on parental depressive symptoms. The relative excess risk of interaction （RERI）， attributable proportion（ AP）， and synergy index（ S） were 6.751［ 95%CI（ 0.365，27.922）］， 0.561 ［95%CI（ 0.041， 0.830）］， and 2.578［ 95%CI（ 1.039， 7.763）］， respectively. Conclusions Mothers of children with ASD exhibit significant depressive disorder， and hyperactive behaviors in male children further exacerbate parental depressive disorder. Hyperactive behaviors of children and parental self-esteem show a significant additive interaction effect on parental depressive disorder.