The Critical Influence of Parental Sleep Disturbance on Children’s Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic

• In Event: Sleep During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence Among Youth, Adolescents, and Parents

Abstract

The current study examined the longitudinal impact on families of multiple stressors that emerged at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States in March of 2020. Accordingly, we modeled the indirect effects of three stressors (i.e., the stress of new childcare and work demands, financial stress, and health-related stress) on children’s levels of anxiety via the mediating pathways of parental sleep quality and two forms of coparenting (i.e., coparental conflict, coparental cohesion). The sample of 1003 parents (72.4% female; Mage = 40.9, SD = 8.5) reported an average of 1.8 children (SD = 1.0) living in the home (Mage = 9.8 years-old, SD = 4.4years), with 22% of families reporting incomes of ≤$50,000. The majority of participants were Caucasian (82.1%), with 5.7% African American, 4.9% Latinx or Hispanic, 2.2% Asian or Pacific Islander, and 3.4% unknown or “other.” Finally, the sample of families was geographically diverse, with 29.4% residing in the Northeast, 21.8% from the Midwest, 30.2% from the South, and 18.7% from the West of the United States.
Parents completed an initial online survey between March 27th and April 30th, 2020, and were invited to complete up to 8 weekly follow-up surveys. Results based on multi-level structural equation modeling suggested that, at the within-families level, coparental conflict mediated the association between parental sleep quality and children’s anxiety. At the between-families level, four significant mediation pathways emerged. First, lower levels of parental sleep quality predicted lower levels of coparental cohesion, which predicted higher levels of children’s anxiety. Second, higher levels of financial stress predicted lower levels of parental sleep quality, which predicted higher levels of children’s anxiety. Third, higher levels of financial stress predicted lower levels of coparental cohesion, which predicted higher levels of children’s anxiety. Finally, health-related stress predicted lower levels of parental sleep quality, which predicted lower levels of family cohesion, which predicted higher levels of children’s anxiety. It is important to note that different findings emerged at the within- and the between-family levels, which suggests that weekly fluctuations over two months of the pandemic were better explained by coparental conflict as a mediator, while the more stable, between-family portion of the model was better characterized by the mediator of coparental cohesion. These findings highlight the importance of separately examining variance at both levels. In addition, they further our understanding of the impact of COVID-19-related stress on families and highlight the important role that parents’ sleep plays in both coparenting and children’s functioning.

Authors

• Ronald Rogge, University of Rochester
  Presenting Author

• Jennifer Daks, Towson University

• Jack S Peltz, SUNY Brockport