Poster #65 - Concurrent and Prospective Models of Sleep on Social Emotional Competence and Behavior Problems in an Early Head Start Sample

• In Event: Poster Session 14

Abstract

Introduction: Sleep is essential to children’s health, yet sleep difficulties in early childhood are very common, with some estimates suggesting up to 34% of children operate without enough sleep (Ramar et al., 2021). Not only may sleep be associated concurrently with children’s behavior (Schlieber & Han, 2021), but a child’s sleep is found to be a significant predictor of internalizing (e.g., anxiety, negative affect), and externalizing behavior difficulties in kids (e.g., hyperactivity; El-Sheikh, 2011; Perfect et al., 2014). Further, sleep may also may be related to their social emotional competencies, which include a child’s prosocial skills and emotion regulation (Domitrovich et al., 2017). This study will examine both concurrent and prospective associations between sleep and social-emotional competence, hypothesizing more sleep at age 2 will be associated with fewer behavior problems and better social-emotional competence at age 2 and 3.

Methods: Participants come from a nationally representative, longitudinal study of children in Early Head Start (Baby FACES, Vogel & Boller, 2014). Sociodemographics, chaos in the home, and amount of sleep at night were collected via parent report at age 2. Both social emotional competence and behavior problems were measured by parent report (BITSEA, Briggs-Gowan & Carter, 2006) at ages 2 and 3. Analyses were weighted per Baby FACES guidelines to account for missing data longitudinally. Regressions analyses controlled for covariates including child gender, maternal social risk (a composite of 5 indicators including education and single parent status), urbanicity, and chaos in the home, and prospective relations controlled for age 2 behavior.

Results: More sleep was not associated with more social emotional competence concurrently at age 2 (unstandardized B(SE) =0.16 (0.10), p =.119), but was significantly associated with more competence at age 3 (unstandardized B(SE) =0.34 (0.04) p <. 001), over and above other covariates (Table 1), with the prospective model explaining 23.2% of variance. In contrast, more sleep was associated with fewer behavior problems at age 2 (unstandardized B(SE) =-0.79 (0.08) p < .001), and at age 3 (unstandardized B(SE) =-0.31 (0.09) p < .001; Table 2), with the prospective model explaining 43.6% of the variance.

Conclusions: More hours of sleep at age 2 was associated with concurrent reduced problem behaviors at age 2, and prospectively with better social emotional competence and reduced problem behaviors at age 3. One possible explanation is that behavior problems can interfere with sleep (i.e., bedtime resistance), and are thus related concurrently and prospectively, while positive behaviors like improved prosocial skills show benefits in a longer-term analysis. Further, difficult temperament may also be a connection between social-emotional competence and sleep behaviors (Staples & Bates, 2011). Being male, higher maternal risk, or more home disorganization, were related to less competence and more problem scores in some models. Some research has shown that behavior problems predicted bedtime resistance in boys, but not girls (Conway et al., 2017). Improving sleep health may best be addressed through preventative measures, for example screening during well-child check-ups.

Authors

• Maire Claire Diemer, University of Missouri- St. Louis
  Presenting Author

• Emily D. Gerstein, University of Missouri-St. Louis