Sleep, Executive Function, and Parenting Quality in Parents Experiencing Homelessness

• In Event: Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Topic - Family Context & Processes

Abstract

Effective parents are among the most important protective factors for children experiencing homelessness (Masten, 2014). Because of their essential role in children’s development, it is critical to understand the factors that support parent functioning in the context of homelessness. Sleep is important for optimal functioning, but it might be particularly challenging to get adequate sleep in emergency housing. Lack of sleep has been associated with depressive symptoms, feelings of burnout, and irritability (Crooklin et al., 2011), all of which may undermine effective parenting. Furthermore, sleep and executive function (EF) -- cognitive skills involved in goal-directed action -- are tightly linked (Lim & Dinges, 2010), and previous research suggests that parent EF is a predictor of parenting behaviors in community samples (Cuevas et al., 2014) and families experiencing homelessness (Monn et al., 2017). We extend these findings by investigating associations among parents’ sleep, EF skills, and parenting quality in families experiencing homelessness.

The present study was part of a larger research program examining the role of parenting in preschoolers’ self-regulation development. Of the 58 parents who participated, 15 either did not consent to the sleep portion or had invalid sleep data. Our final sample included 43 parents (Mage = 32.53 years) with at least two nights of valid sleep data. The majority of participants were biological mothers (84%) who were primarily Black/African American (63%).

Parents completed two study sessions about one week apart. Measures in the first session included the Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS), Flanker Inhibitory Control task, and the Picture Vocabulary Test (PVT) from the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery. Parents were also given the Emotional Go-No-Go (EGNG) task, which indexes “cool” EF in the first part of the task and “hot” EF in the second. After completing the four computerized tasks, parents were invited to wear an actigraph on their wrist for one week to measure their sleep. During their second session, parents completed a 25-min battery of interaction tasks with their preschool-aged child. These tasks were later coded for overall parenting quality by independent raters (DeGarmo et al., 2004).

Preliminary analyses indicated no significant differences in EF, PVT, or parenting quality between parents with and without sleep data. Total sleep duration for each day was computed with the Cole-Kripke algorithm in ActiLife and manually checked for errors. Change in sleep duration from one night to the next was also calculated (higher values indicate greater variability in sleep duration). Each sleep metric was averaged across the week for a total score. An exploratory factor analysis indicated that DCCS, Flanker, and the first part of EGNG loaded onto one factor (RMSEA = .06), so they were composited for one “cool” EF score; participants’ scores on the second part of the EGNG task were used as their “hot” EF score. Results from the final path model testing associations among parent sleep, EF, and parenting are shown in Figure 1. Findings suggest that sleep duration might be an important predictor of cognitive functioning in parents experiencing homelessness, although neither sleep nor EF significantly predicted parenting quality.

Authors

• Rebecca Distefano, Roger Williams University
  Presenting Author

• Madelyn Labella, William and Mary
  Non-Presenting Author

• Andrew Barnes, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ann S. Masten, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
  Non-Presenting Author