The role of maternal psychopathology and parenting stress for children’s excessive crying and sleeping problems in the representative German sample KiD 0-3

• In Event: Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Topic - Family Context & Processes

Abstract

Attaining self-regulation is a major developmental task in infancy. This task is jointly accomplished by increasing capabilities of children and parental co-regulatory competencies. Difficulties in self-regulation include continuing unconsolable crying or sleep onset and night waking disorders (Zero-to-Three, 2016). Usually, families with a child having regulatory problems are burdened with multiple psychosocial risks on the side of parents and children. Thus, they should be seen in a symptom triad with overly burdened parents and a dysfunctional parent-child interactions (Papoušek, 2004). In this study, we will examine this triad by testing parenting stress as a mediating path linking maternal psychopathology to children‘s excessive crying and sleeping problems.
The sample comprised N=6598 mothers (Ø 31.5 years, 9.1 % single parents) of children between zero to three years (Ø 14.1 months, 50.1 % girls), who visited a pediatrician for routine child development examinations (U3 to U7a) in 2015. Besides demographic variables, the written questionnaire included information on psychopathological symptoms, i.e. depression and anxiety, social isolation and difficulties identifying children’s signals assessing parenting stress, and children's regulatory problems. Via PROCESS we tested a mediation model using a weighted sample and controlled for psychosocial burdens and child characteristics.
According to our expectations, there was a significant positive total effect of symptoms of depression & anxiety on excessive crying (p = 0.028): Mothers with increased symptoms of depression & anxiety reported higher excessive crying. Overall, this model was significant (p < 0.001) and explained 16.68 % of variance in excessive crying. Nevertheless, the total effect seemed not to refer to the direct effect as it was not significant (p = 0.059). However, according to our expectations,the effect was mediated through difficulties identifying children’s signals and through experienced social isolation and difficulties identifying children’s signals in serial.
Additionally and as expected, there was a significant positive total effect of symptoms of depression & anxiety on sleeping problems (p < 0.01): Mothers with increased symptoms of depression & anxiety also reported higher sleeping problems. Overall, this model was significant (p < 0.001) and explained 14.48% of variance in sleeping problems. In this model, the total effect of symptoms of depression & anxiety on sleeping problems partly referred to the direct effect as it was significant (p = 0.002). In addition, all three mediation pathways of the effect of symptoms of depression & anxiety on sleeping problems were significant, i.e. the path through experienced social isolation alone, the path through difficulties identifying children’s signals alone and the path through experienced social isolation and difficulties identifying children’s signals in serial.
The findings will be discussed in the context of early prevention for burdened families.

Authors

• Ulrike Lux, German Youth Institute
  Presenting Author

• Mitho Müller, LMU Munich
  Non-Presenting Author

• Corinna Reck, Ludwig-Maximilians-University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Christoph Liel, German Youth Institute
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sabine Walper, German Youth Institute
  Non-Presenting Author