3-166 - The Impact of the Family Environment on Sleep of Children and Adolescents

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Child and adolescent sleep patterns are largely determined by the family environment (Sadeh, Tikotzky & Scher, 2010). The ecological systems perspective on sleep (Sadeh & Anders, 1993; Sadeh & El-Sheikh, 2015) points to the importance of the family environment at different levels; low socio-economic status, stressful family and household environments and negative parent-child interaction have been associated with sleep problems in children and adolescents. Both toddlerhood and adolescence are crucial developmental periods in sleep development. In toddlerhood, independence and separation are core challenges for child and parent, whereas adolescent sleep is additionally vulnerable due to a biological shift toward later circadian timing. Surprisingly little studies examined the influence of the family environment on objective indices of sleep. The contributions in the current symposium assess effects of neighborhood factors such as poverty (Paper 1), family chaos and irregularity (Papers 1 and 2), and the parent-child relationship (Paper 3) on multi-day actigraphic sleep assessments, in toddlerhood and adolescence. These contributions characterize socialization effects on sleep on macro, meso, and micro levels. Moreover, the symposium combines findings from three studies in the US (Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study; diverse birth cohort study), the Netherlands (Generation R Study; population-based cohort study) and Israel (Family Sleep Study; multi-method quantitative-qualitative study). The studies involved provide robust and cross-continental results on the impact of the family environment on sleep health in children and adolescents, and provides the audience with ample chance for interdisciplinary discussion, led by expert in the field professor Mona El-Sheikh.

Sub Unit

• Family Context & Processes

Chair

• Maartje Luijk, Erasmus University Rotterdam

Discussant

• Mona El-Sheikh, Auburn University

Individual Presentations

• Demographic, Household, and Neighborhood Factors Associated with Sleep Health Among Adolescents - Presenting Author: Sarah James, Office of Population Research, Princeton University; Non-Presenting Author: Anne-Marie Chang, Department of Biobehavioral Health, Pennsylvania State University; Non-Presenting Author: Orfeu M. Buxton, Department of Biobehavioral Health, Pennsylvania State University; Non-Presenting Author: Lauren Hale, Department of Family, Population, and Preventive Medicine, Program in Public Health Stony Brook University

• Pre-School Family Irregularity Disturbs the Development of Sleep in Children - Presenting Author: Elisabeth Koopman-Verhoeff, Erasmus University Medical Center, the Netherlands; Non-Presenting Author: Fadila Serdarevic, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam; Non-Presenting Author: Desana Kocevska, Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam; Non-Presenting Author: F. Fenne Bodrij, Institute of Education and Child Studies, Leiden University; Non-Presenting Author: Henning Tiemeier, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston; Non-Presenting Author: Charlotte Cecil, Erasmus Medical Center; Non-Presenting Author: Frank C. Verhulst, Copenhagen University Hospital; Non-Presenting Author: Maartje Luijk, Erasmus University Rotterdam

• Self and Others in the Family: Differentiation, Separation and Nighttime Parenting - Presenting Author: Tamar Simon, Department of Counseling and Human Development, University of Haifa; Non-Presenting Author: Anat Scher, Department of Counseling and Human Development, University of Haifa