Parent and Child Sleep in the Context of Family Adversity

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

The lives of parents and children are intimately connected in early life, especially in the context of adversity. Sleep is an important factor for optimal development and is related to both adversity and parents’ behaviors and experiences. Biological and environmental factors linking these constructs are likely to interact to predict developmental outcomes; however, they are often studied separately and much remains unknown about the role of parent’s adversity and paternal involvement on features of sleep beyond average duration. In this symposium, we present novel findings that address these gaps using racially/ethnically diverse samples. Study 1 examines how restless sleep during pregnancy influences the link between mother’s adversity and infant epigenetic aging. Study 2 focuses on maternal and paternal sleep as mediators of parental adversity and children’s sleep, using a range of actigraphic sleep parameters. Study 3 investigates effects of paternal involvement during early childhood on actigraphy-measured sleep in and middle childhood among children with high adversity. Lastly, Study 4 examines the effects of low maternal education and poor maternal sensitivity on sleep schedule variability in middle childhood. These studies advance the literature through their use of multiple methods and informants, novel biomarkers, and a variety of objective and subjective sleep parameters. Findings highlight the complex interplay of parental behaviors and experiences, adversity, and sleep in development. Specifically, results suggest sleep may be centrally involved in the intergenerational transmission of stress, and future research should examine sleep as a mechanism linking intergenerational stress to poor health.

Sub Unit

• Family Context & Processes

Chair

• Darlynn Marie Rojo-Wissar, Brown University

Individual Presentations

• Maternal Exposure to Childhood Adversity and Infant Epigenetic Age Acceleration: Moderation by Mother’s Restless Sleep - Presenting Author: David W Sosnowski, Johns Hopkins University; Gang Peng; Cathrine Hoyo; Susan K Murphy; Joan Kaufman; Sara B Johnson

• Mothers’ Trauma History Predicts Sleep Onset and Sleep Lability in Infants in the Early Post-Partum - Presenting Author: Douglas M Teti, The Pennsylvania State University; Christine Kim, Pennsylvania State University, University Park; Brian Crosby, Pennsylvania State University; Kaitlin Marie Trexberg, Pennsylvania State University, University Park

• Father Involvement and Child Sleep in a Racially and Ethnically Diverse Sample Exposed to Adversity - Presenting Author: Darlynn Marie Rojo-Wissar, Brown University; Teresa L. Daniels, Brown University; Ronald Seifer, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Stephanie H Parade, Brown University; Audrey R. Tyrka, Brown University

• Intra-individual Variability in Sleep Duration and Schedule in Middle Childhood: Links to Early Maternal Sensitivity and Education - Presenting Author: Annie Bernier, University of Montreal; Charlotte Dusablon, University of Montreal; Anna-Francesca Boatswain-Jacques, McGill University; Elie Yu Tong Guo, Université de Montréal (UdeM); Laurianne Bastien, Université de Montréal (UdeM)