Parenting Stress, Infant Sleep Wakings, and Pathways to Parenthood

• In Event: 343 - Regular Session. Parenthood 2

Abstract

Infants have erratic sleep schedules, and the often intense sleep/wake cycle of the early months of life can add to the burdens and adjustments faced by new parents. In addition to the current circumstances of infant and parent life, the transition to parenthood begins in the run-up to conception and through months of pregnancy, as parents adjust to new roles. Using data from the NICHD SECCYD, we explored the connection between parents’ stress and perceptions of their six-month-olds’ sleep. One in five mothers reported problematic infant sleep wakings, and they were more socioeconomically disadvantaged yet found parenting more stressful. In results from linear regression models, mothers tended to be stressed out when infants’ sleep wakings were problematic for them; however, this association differed by plannedness of the pregnancy. Mothers who planned their pregnancies did not experience more parenting stress than other mothers in general, but they did experience more stress when their children had problematic sleep wakings. Given these findings, programs and interventions aimed at assisting new parents with managing stress and infants with sleeping through the night should target mothers whose pregnancies were planned and for whom infant sleep wakings likely disrupt their otherwise planned out and positive transition to parenthood.

Authors

• Chelsea Smith, University of Texas-Austin

• Rachel A. Gordon, University of Illinois-Chicago

• Shannon Cavanagh, University of Texas-Austin

• Robert Crosnoe, University of Texas-Austin