Family environment and preschoolers' sleep: the complementary role of both parents

Abstract

Objective: To investigate in a sample of low-income families whether the quality of parent-child interactions mediated the association between coparenting and child sleep, and if this association was moderated by parents' anxiety.

Method: In sum, 81 two-parent families with a preschool child (aged 3 to 5 years) and receiving social security benefits were recruited. Mothers and fathers completed questionnaires assessing coparenting, parental anxiety, and child sleep duration and sleep problems. Quality of mother-child and father-child interactions was evaluated by independent observers from videotaped free play sequences in the home environment.

Results: Results showed that preschoolers' sleep duration was unrelated to paternal factors but associated with maternal factors. Specifically, coparenting predicted children's sleep duration through its effect on the quality of mother-child interactions, but only for dyads in which mothers were clinically anxious. Preschoolers' sleep problems were related to coparenting, quality of mother-child and father-child interactions, and mothers' but not fathers' anxiety.

Conclusion: The current results suggest that both parents play a complementary role in children's sleep. Likewise, different pathways and interactions were found in relation to sleep duration and problems, emphasizing the complexity of the links between family factors and sleep processes. Overall, this study helps to clarify some of the associations between parental characteristics and preschoolers' sleep within a sample of low-income families.

Keywords: Family environment; Low-income sample; Parent-child interactions; Preschool; Sleep duration; Sleep problems.