Father Involvement and Child Sleep in a Racially and Ethnically Diverse Sample Exposed to Adversity

• In Event: Parent and Child Sleep in the Context of Family Adversity

Abstract

Father involvement plays a key role in familial wellbeing and child development (Diniz et al., 2021). Child sleep is one of the least studied outcomes in relation to father involvement, despite healthy sleep being essential for optimal development (Shochat et al., 2014; Spruyt, 2019). Human sleep evolved under conditions by which social bonds and presence was critical to survival due to an absence of physically safe sleeping spaces (Dahl & El-Sheikh, 2007; Worthman & Melby, 2002). Father involvement may create an environment with greater feelings of emotional security and safety, contributing to healthier sleep. Prior research in this domain has largely focused on infancy, relied on questionnaire assessments of sleep, and predominantly white middle-class samples with little stress exposure (Covington et al., 2021; Diniz et al., 2021). We examined associations of father involvement during early childhood and actigraphy-measured sleep during middle childhood in a racially and ethnically diverse sample of children with exposure to adversity. We hypothesized that father involvement would be associated with longer total sleep time (TST), shorter wake after sleep onset (WASO), better sleep efficiency (SE), and less variability in these parameters.

91 children enrolled in a longitudinal study with assessments in the preschool period (3-5 years) and middle childhood (9-11 years) participated. 52% of children were male, 46% were Hispanic, 13% Black, 22% White, and 19% biracial/multiracial. 46% experienced moderate to severe maltreatment prior to study enrollment. 58% of mothers had ≤ HS degree. Mothers reported on father involvement and information on child exposure to adversity was gathered from child protection records, parent questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews in early childhood. In middle childhood children wore wrist-worn actigraphs for one week, and we computed means and standard deviations of TST, WASO, and SE.

41% of fathers were involved and living in the home, 37% were involved but living outside the home, and 22% were not involved in the child’s life. We observed robust associations between father involvement and longer TST in middle childhood, regardless of whether the father lived in the home (Table 1). Even when accounting for demographic characteristics, number of adversities, and preschool sleep, father involvement (living outside home) was associated with 35.79 minutes longer average TST, and father involvement (living inside home) was associated with 32.10 minutes longer average TST compared to no father involvement. Similarly, there were robust associations of father involvement with less variability in SE, but only when the father lived in the home. Father involvement was also associated with less variability in WASO and TST, but only when the father lived in the home, and effects were no longer significant when adjusting for number of adversities and maternal-reported child sleep at baseline.

Father involvement during preschool may act as a protective factor for child sleep in middle childhood, even when accounting for adversities, regardless of the father’s residential status. Findings support the importance of examining the relationship between family context and child sleep, especially father involvement.

Authors

• Darlynn Marie Rojo-Wissar, Brown University
  Presenting Author

• Teresa L. Daniels, Brown University

• Ronald Seifer, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Stephanie H Parade, Brown University

• Audrey R. Tyrka, Brown University