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

Abstract

We examined relations between mothers’ and fathers’ problem drinking and school-aged children’s sleep. Consistent with a health disparities perspective, children’s ethnicity and socioeconomic status were examined as moderators of relations between parental problem drinking and children’s sleep. Participants were 282 children (M age = 9.44 years) and their parents. Children were from diverse ethnic (65% European American, 35% African American) and socioeconomic backgrounds. Using a multi-informant design, parents reported on their own problem drinking and children’s sleep was assessed with actigraphs over 7 nights. After controlling for several influential covariates, moderation findings indicated that associations between heightened levels of parental problem drinking (predominately fathers’) and children’s shorter sleep duration, reduced sleep efficiency, and greater long wake episodes were most evident for African American children and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Findings are among the first to establish relations between parental problem drinking and children’s sleep and indicate that not all children are at equal risk for sleep disturbances in such home environments. Results add to a growing literature that has examined children’s sleep within the family context and highlight the importance of considering the broader sociocultural milieu.

Reciprocal Relations Between Parental Problem Drinking and Children's Sleep: The Role of Socioeconomic Adversity

“…Family risk including interpartner aggression (Kelly & El‐Sheikh, ), parenting stress, reduced social support among parents, and less marital satisfaction (Bernier et al., ) compromise sleep to a greater degree for children from lower SES backgrounds. The longitudinal analyses build on these studies and on a previous investigation that demonstrated cross‐sectional relations between fathers’ PD and children's sleep problems to be more robust for lower SES children (Kelly & El‐Sheikh, ). For children from lower but not higher SES backgrounds, fathers’ PD predicted shortening of sleep duration and worsening of sleep quality including sleep efficiency, long wake episodes, and sleep latency 1 year later.…”

“…Similarly, another study found that children of parents who had a dependency on alcohol had shorter self‐reported and actigraphy‐derived sleep duration (Hairston et al., ). In a recent investigation that used a community sample, PPD was associated cross‐sectionally with shorter actigraphy‐derived sleep duration and worse sleep quality, particularly for African American children and those from lower income homes (Kelly & El‐Sheikh, ). In that study, fathers’ PD was more influential than mothers’ PD for children's sleep (Kelly & El‐Sheikh, ).…”

“…In a recent investigation that used a community sample, PPD was associated cross‐sectionally with shorter actigraphy‐derived sleep duration and worse sleep quality, particularly for African American children and those from lower income homes (Kelly & El‐Sheikh, ). In that study, fathers’ PD was more influential than mothers’ PD for children's sleep (Kelly & El‐Sheikh, ). Although reasons for these differences are not clear, men often become more hostile than women after heavy alcohol consumption (Ogle & Miller, ), increasing the probability of vigilance and disrupted sleep in children.…”

“…Similarly, longitudinal relations between several parent functioning variables (e.g., parenting stress, marital satisfaction, perceived social support) and children's sleep problems were moderated by SES, and in most instances, the expected effects were more robust for lower SES children (Bernier et al., ). In addition, greater PD among fathers, and to a lesser extent among mothers, was related to shorter sleep duration and poorer sleep quality concurrently for children from lower but not higher SES homes (Kelly & El‐Sheikh, ). These findings indicate that consideration of the broader socioeconomic context as a moderator of effects holds promise for gaining a better understanding of relations between family risk and children's sleep.…”

Family Functioning and Children's Sleep

“…Fifth, sleep and family functioning are associated in complex ways, and some of the most informative investigations are those that incorporate additional levels of influence, such as the broader sociocultural context (11, 45) or individual differences in children’s physiological regulation (42). For example, the importance of assessing many levels of influence is illustrated by the finding that mothers’ depressive symptoms interacted with children’s vagal regulation (an index of parasympathetic nervous system activity) to predict sleep problems longitudinally (42): Children most at risk for poor sleep were those with both depressed mothers and less optimal vagal regulation.…”