Poster #61 - Sleep Deficits, Stress, and Negative Affect in Toddlerhood

• In Event: 1-169 - Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Section - Developmental Psychopathology

Integrative Statement

Stress has been positively linked with child negative emotionality, which is predictive of later internalizing problems (Compas, Connor-Smith, & Jaser, 2004). Family stress, such as high levels of marital conflict or limited economic resources, is also associated with child sleep difficulties (El‐Sheikh, Buckhalt, Mize, & Acebo, 2006; Hoyniak et al., 2018). Early sleep problems, in turn, are comorbid with internalizing and externalizing problems (Leahy & Gradisar, 2012; Lycett, Sciberras, Mensah, & Hiscock, 2015). Although links between stress, sleep, negative emotionality, and adjustment problems have been established, interactions between stress and sleep to predict adjustment have been understudied. The association between child sleep and adjustment may depend upon the child’s developmental context. It is theoretically plausible that children experiencing both high stress and poor and insufficient sleep may be the most likely to show high levels of negative emotionality, but this has yet to be tested empirically.

The present study used objective (actigraphic) measures of children’s sleep, a comprehensive measure of family stress, and observed and parent reported measures of children’s adjustment in a community sample of 30-month-olds (N = 410). The MicroMini Motionlogger from Ambulatory Monitoring, Inc. (AMI; Ardsley, NY) was worn for 14 days. Actigraph data were scored with the Motionlogger Analysis Software Package Action W-2 software (version 2.6.92) from AMI using the Sadeh algorithm, which has been validated for children (Sadeh, Alster, Urbach, & Lavie, 1989). Sleep components reflecting duration, timing, variability, and activity were used in all analyses, based on previous research (Staples, Bates, Petersen, McQuillan, & Hoyniak, under review).  Five minutes of parent-child free play, during which the child was instructed to play with toys on a table without playing with more attractive toys on a nearby shelf, was divided into 15-second intervals and coded for child negative affect. Each interval was coded as 0 no negative affect, 1 low negative affect (e.g., whining), or 2 high negative affect (e.g., crying). The proportion of intervals without negative affect were multiplied by 0, with low negative affect multiplied by 1, and with high negative affect multiplied by 2. These weights were summed to form a weighted composite (possible range = 0-3). Stress was assessed using a Cumulative Risk Index of a variety of stressors, including low socioeconomic status, single parenthood, chaos, role overload, parenting hassles, limited parental social support, and stressful life events, in accordance with previous research (McQuillan, Bates, Staples, & Deater-Deckard, under review). Primary caregivers rated child internalizing behavior problems using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; Achenbach, 2000).

We found weak correlations between sleep indexes, negative emotionality, and internalizing problems (see Table 1). We also found that sleep and stress interacted to predict negative emotionality during free play for each of our sleep indexes. For example, children who experienced the shortest sleep and the highest stress showed the most negative affect (see Figure 1). These findings suggest that better sleep may improve the daily functioning of toddlers from high stress environments, and may potentially mitigate the development of behavior problems.

Authors

• Jessica Sperber, Indiana University
  Presenting Author

• Maureen E. McQuillan, Indiana University
  Non-Presenting Author

• John Bates, Indiana University - Bloomington
  Non-Presenting Author

• Dennis Lee Molfese, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kathleen Moritz Rudasill, Virginia Commonwealth University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Victoria J Molfese, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
  Non-Presenting Author