Poster #50 - The Impact of Childhood Overcontrol on Sleep and Physical Activity

• In Event: Poster Session 13

Abstract

Children of overcontrolled mothers experience more sleep difficulties and are perceived as having lower competence in physical activities (Kiel et al., 2015; Affrunti & Ginsburg, 2011). Notably, existing research does not explore the impact of child overcontrol on these areas. Overcontrol is characterized by such traits as perfectionism, hyper performance monitoring, inflexibility, and social comparison (Gilbert et al., 2020). In childhood, the overcontrolled phenotype manifests as a stable trait as early as age 5 and has been associated with poor social functioning and high internalizing symptoms (Gilbert et al., 2020; Robins et el., 1996; Eisenberg et al., 2000). Because overcontrol has demonstrated stability across the lifespan (Hart et al., 2003), understanding its impact on physical activity and sleep health from a young age is essential for fostering healthy developmental trajectories. Additionally, there is a lack of research on preschool-aged physical activity and sleep that utilizes objective indices rather than or in addition to subjective parental reports. As such, the purpose of the current study was to examine associations between objectively measured and subjectively reported physical activity and sleep in preschoolers to investigate the impact of child overcontrol on physical activity and sleep quality. Baseline data from the Children’s Health in Lab and Life (CHiLL) study were used in analyses. The CHiLL study is an ongoing longitudinal study designed to assess physical activity, sleep, and daily emotions in a community sample of 101 preschool children ranging from ages 3-5 years (Mage= 3.94 ± 0.80 years; 55% boys). Children and their caregivers completed a week-long actigraphy protocol during which children’s movement behaviors (including sleep, sedentary time, light physical activity [LPA], and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity [MVPA]) were measured using ActiGraph GT3X+ accelerometers. Devices were worn on each child’s non-dominant wrist 24 hours a day for 7 days. In addition, parents were asked complete surveys on their child’s physical activity and sleep behaviors. A subsample (n=74) of parents also reported on their child’s overcontrol. After accounting for child age and sex, childhood overcontrol was not associated with any objective measures including sedentary time, LPA, MVPA, sleep duration, sleep efficiency, or nighttime awakenings (r’s -.005-.13, p’s>.20). However, differences were noted on subjective parental reports: childhood overcontrol was associated with reports of the child being too tired or physically unable to participate in physical activity (r=.38, p=.006), having trouble falling asleep at night (r=.27, p=.04), having global physical health difficulties (r=.28, p=.04), and being less likely to participate in physical activity (r= .32, p=.02). These results highlight an interesting discrepancy between parental reports of childhood physical activity and sleep as compared to objective, accelerometer-obtained data. Future research is crucial to examine reciprocal relationships between overcontrolled children and their parents in order to identify factors contributing to this discrepancy. One limitation of the current study is a lack of data on maternal overcontrol. Future studies could investigate the interplay between childhood and maternal overcontrol to assess its potential role in guiding parental perceptions, as well as the impact of these perceptions on childhood development and parenting styles.

Authors

• David Alex Puricelli, Washington University in St. Louis
  Presenting Author

• Kirsten E Gilbert, Washington University School of Medicine

• Diana Whalen, Washington University in St. Louis