Longitudinal relations between parents’ sleep problems and harsh parenting.

Abstract

Toward better understanding the determinants of harsh parenting, the present study assessed prospective associations between mothers' and fathers' sleep problems and their harsh parenting toward their child using two waves of data. Children's gender was examined as a moderator of these associations. At the first wave, 257 families participated. Mean age was 36.15 years (SD = 5.70 years) for mothers, 39.78 years (SD = 7.54 years) for fathers, and 10.41 years (SD = 7.85 months) for children. The sample was diverse in terms of race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status with approximately 68% identifying as White/European American and 29% identifying as Black/African American. After approximately 1 year, families participated in a second study wave. Parents' sleep was assessed using actigraphy (sleep minutes, sleep efficiency, and long wake episodes) and mothers and fathers reported on the occurrence of their psychological and physical forms of harsh parenting toward their child. After controlling for autoregressive effects, fewer sleep minutes, reduced sleep efficiency, and more frequent long wake episodes among fathers predicted greater harsh parenting among fathers 1 year later. Child gender moderated some of these associations such that relations between fathers' poorer-quality sleep and higher levels of harsh parenting were more pronounced for boys. Sleep problems among mothers did not predict mothers' harsh parenting over time. Findings build on a growing literature that has considered sleep in the family context and provide novel insight into the influence of parents' sleep on their parenting practices.

Restriction of the family-centered care miracle by COVID-19: the role of the father in sleep disturbance of hospitalized pediatrics

“…Nocturnal awakening is usually less frequent in toddlers than infants, but most children in this age group have at least one weekly wake-up in which they inform their parents of the awakening 13 . When children have difficulty falling asleep, their parents also have difficulty sleeping [14][15][16] . Hospitalized children both physically and emotionally need the simultaneous presence of their parents when they are hospitalized, and in the presence of both of them, the child feels more relaxed and the parents play an important role in the child's life during hospitalization 17 .…”

COVID-related stressors and their impact on parental sleep, parenting behaviors, and child functioning.

“…For instance, not only does sleep quality predict parents’ functioning (e.g., Peltz et al, 2020), but it is also an important component of family functioning (Meltzer & Montgomery-Downs, 2011). Parental sleep supports parents’ capacities to handle the day-to-day challenges inherent in parenting (Sinai & Tikotzky, 2012), and the downstream consequences of poor parental sleep, such as frequent night-wakings, can ultimately impact their parenting behaviors and children’s functioning (Kelly et al, 2021; Pinquart, 2017). Notably, previous research has suggested that parenting and children’s behaviors appear to be bidirectional in nature (Pinquart, 2017; Schermerhorn & Cummings, 2008).…”

“…Results in a sample of 142 mothers of infants demonstrated that mothers' irregular sleep patterns were associated with poorer parenting quality (e.g., less emotional availability) at bedtime (Bai et al, 2020). Despite the focus on maternal sleep in this area of research, Kelly et al (2021) found that shorter sleep duration, reduced sleep efficiency, and more frequent night-waking episodes predicted higher levels of harsh parenting in fathers, but not mothers. Meta-analytic results strongly support sleep impairments' negative influence on a wide range of cognitive abilities, including working memory, episodic memory, and problem solving (Wardle-Pinkston et al, 2019).…”

“…One particular target of this stress emerged in parents’ sleep, with parents’ levels of deficient sleep, defined as sleep that is poor quality (e.g., restless, fragmented) or of insufficient duration, demonstrating significant increases during the pandemic (Bertrand et al, 2022; Jahrami et al, 2021; Pinto et al, 2020). The downstream consequences of deficient sleep are diverse, but research suggests that deficient sleep can exacerbate parenting behaviors (e.g., increased shouting/swearing at the child), which have been shown to be strong predictors of children’s outcomes, such as increased levels of aggression (e.g., Kelly et al, 2021; Pinquart, 2017). In the present study, we examine a process-focused model in which COVID-related stressors indirectly impacted children’s behavioral problems via parental sleep quality, a key component of deficient sleep, and its impact on their parenting behaviors.…”

The Effects of the Emeryville Fair Workweek Ordinance on the Daily Lives of Low-Wage Workers and Their Families

“…Worse sleep quality, for example, is related to both heart disease in the adult population (Cappuccio et al 2011) and depression among parents (Park, Meltzer-Brody, and Stickgold 2013). Poor sleep quality is associated with more harsh parenting behavior (Kelly et al 2021), and worse daily sleep quality has been found to exacerbate the effects of chronic and daily stressors on daily negative parental mood (da Estrela et al 2018;Lillis et al 2018;Mihaila and Hartley 2018). Thus, improvements in sleep quality may have the potential to lead to longer-term improvements in family functioning and child well-being, such as more positive parent-child interactions, reduced parental stress, and improved child behavior.…”