Longitudinal Relations Between Parent–Child Conflict and Children’s Adjustment: The Role of Children’s Sleep

Abstract

Sleep was examined as a process variable in relations between verbal and physical parent-child conflict and change in children’s internalizing and externalizing symptoms over time. Participants were 282 children at T1 (M age = 9.44 years; 48% girls), 280 children at T2 (M age = 10.41 years), and 275 children at T3 (M age = 11.35 years). Children reported on parent-child conflict, sleep was assessed with actigraphy, and parents reported on children’s internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Autoregressive effects for sleep and internalizing and externalizing symptoms were controlled to examine change over time. Supportive of intervening processes, physical parent-child conflict at T1 and increased change in internalizing and externalizing symptoms at T3 were indirectly related through their shared association with reduced sleep continuity (efficiency, long wake episodes) at T2. Findings build on a small but growing literature and highlight the importance of considering the role of sleep among relations between family conflict and child development.

Parental problem drinking and children’s sleep: The role of ethnicity and socioeconomic status.

“…A growing number of studies have addressed children’s sleep in the family context (El-Sheikh & Buckhalt, 2015) and accumulating evidence has indicated that multiple facets of family functioning including parental inter-partner conflict (Kelly & El-Sheikh, 2014), parents’ symptoms of depression (Seifer, 2011), and parent-child conflict (Kelly et al, 2014) jeopardize school-aged children’s sleep. The current investigation builds on these studies and provides evidence that PPD, a form of family risk that occurs frequently in U.S. homes, relates to children’s sleep.…”

“…These were children’s symptoms of anxiety and depression (Sadeh, Tikotzky, & Kahn, 2014), parents’ symptoms of depression (for a review Seifer, 2011), parent-child conflict (Kelly et al, 2014), and inter-partner aggression (Kelly & El-Sheikh, 2014). All measures used to assess the covariates have demonstrated good psychometric properties and have been used frequently in the extant literature.…”

“…A growing literature has considered sleep within the family context and accumulating evidence indicates that family risk is associated with children’s sleep problems. For instance, parental inter-partner aggression (Kelly & El-Sheikh, 2014), parent-child conflict (Kelly, Marks, & El-Sheikh, 2014), and parental psychopathology (e.g., symptoms of depression; Seifer, 2011) are not conducive to children’s sleep. Despite these advances, relations between children’s sleep and many family variables have been unexplored and there is a call in the literature for conducting such assessments (El-Sheikh & Buckhalt, 2015).…”

Family Functioning and Children's Sleep

“…Higher quality of interactions between mothers and infants and fathers and infants predicted an increase in babies’ nighttime sleep (14), and inconsistency in parenting practices predicted less sleep in young children (15). Moreover, aggression directed at children by parents predicted less optimal sleep quality for the children (16). In other studies, infants of mothers who implemented relaxing bedtime routines woke less frequently during the night (17).…”

Recent Updates in the Social and Environmental Determinants of Sleep Health

“…Family conflict is also associated with children’s sleep quality. Sleep efficiency and the number of long wake episodes per night at age 10 intervene in the association of parent-child conflict at age 9 and problem behavior in children at age 11 [26]. Children whose parents have high marital conflict at age 9 have more sleep problems at age 10 [27] and age 11 [24] than children of parents with less marital conflict.…”