Poster #93 - Early Maternal Predictors of Nighttime Parenting Competence Across the First Year

• In Event: 3-003 - Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Section - Family Context & Processes

Integrative Statement

For many parents, the development of infant self-regulated sleep is a desired developmental achievement during the first year. Parents’ ability to understand and respond to their child’s needs during the night and how nighttime parenting influences infant sleep regulation are important concerns to both clinicians and researchers. However, surprisingly little is known about nighttime parenting competence and its predictors. Recent work (Voltaire & Teti, in press) has demonstrated that nighttime parental interventions in response to infant non-distress, from direct observations during the first 3 months, predicted poorer infant sleep regulation across the first year, whereas parental interventions in response to infant distress predicted better infant sleep regulation. These findings suggest that early responsiveness to infant distress during the night, and refraining from interacting with non-distressed infants, constitutes “competent” nighttime parenting because such intervention patterns promote better infant sleep regulation. The present study extended these findings by examining socio-demographic and psychosocial predictors of nighttime parenting interventions to non-distressed infants, utilizing longitudinal observations of early parenting behaviors during the night.

Videorecorded data from 3 occasions (3, 6, and 9 months postpartum) were used to identify non-distressed initiated parent interventions, denoted by behavior directed to a non-distressed infant (e.g., a sleeping infant or an awake but non-distressed infant). At 1 month postpartum, mothers also reported their age, their perceived positive coparenting, (i.e., the amount of support and cooperation received from their partner), and anxieties about their infants’ nighttime needs.

Multiple linear regressions indicated that maternal age, perceived positive coparenting, and anxiety at 1 month postpartum significantly predicted the number of non-distressed initiated parent interventions observed at 3 months. Perceived positive coparenting predicted lower levels of non-distressed parent interventions (ß = -.202, p <.05). , and maternal anxiety predicted higher amounts of non-distressed initiated parent interventions (ß = .197, p <.05). Similar results were obtained predicting non-distress initiated parent interventions at 6 months from coparenting quality and anxieties over infant night needs at 1 month (ß = -.267, p <.01 and ß = .227, p <.05 respectively). Although the overall regression model was not significant at 9 months, maternal anxiety over infant night needs at 1 month remained a significant predictor of increased non-distress initiated parent interventions at 9 months (ß =.277, p <.05).

Collectively, these findings show that mothers who experience more coparenting distress and who are more anxious about their infants’ nighttime behaviors during the first month post-partum are at risk for engaging in nighttime parenting that may impede the development of infant self-regulated sleep across the first year. The linkages between coparenting, maternal anxiety, and parenting competence match other findings that have associated maternal personal distress (i.e., worries about infant night waking) with nighttime parenting competence (Teti & Crosby, 2012). These findings contribute to a clearer understanding of salient predictors of nighttime parenting competence during the transition to parenthood. Intervention programs that address maternal concerns around infant nighttime needs and encourage partner support and cooperation, prenatally or early in parenting, may be helpful in improving nighttime parenting competence.

Authors

• Sabrina Voltaire, The Pennsylvania State University
  Presenting Author

• Douglas Teti, Pennsylvania State University
  Non-Presenting Author