Longitudinal relations between sleep and cognitive functioning in children: Self-esteem as a moderator.

Short and poor-quality sleep disrupt cognitive functioning, yet associations vary across studies, underscoring the importance of examining individual differences and moderators of risk. Utilizing a multi-method, two-wave longitudinal design, we examined self-esteem as a moderator of relations between actigraphy-derived sleep duration (minutes) and quality (efficiency, long-wake episodes) and children's cognitive functioning 1 year later. During the first study wave (T1), participants were 243 children (47% female) with a mean age of 10.4 years (SD = 8.0 months). The sample was representative of its community, with 37% identifying as Black/African American and 63% White/European American. Children completed a self-esteem measure and wore actigraphs for seven consecutive nights. Participants returned to the lab 1 year later and completed a standardized assessment of cognitive functioning. Results indicated that self-esteem moderated longitudinal associations between sleep quality and cognitive functioning. Specifically, children with both better sleep quality and higher self-esteem performed better relative to other children in the sample.

The link between maternal sleep and permissive parenting during late adolescence.

Utilizing a multi-method design, the present study examined the association between maternal sleep, assessed via actigraphy and self-reports, and permissive parenting (e.g. lax, inconsistent discipline) during adolescence, as well as the extent to which this association differed by mothers' race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. The sample was comprised of 234 mothers (M age = 41.76 years, SD = 6.25; 67% European-American, 31% African-American, 2% other race/ethnicities) and 237 adolescents (113 boys, 124 girls; M age = 15.80 years, SD = 0.80; 66% European-American, 34% African-American). Mothers' sleep duration (actual sleep minutes) and quality (sleep efficiency, latency, long wake episodes) were assessed using actigraphy. Mothers also reported on their sleep problems and adolescents reported on mothers' permissive parenting behaviours. Results revealed that actigraphy-based longer sleep duration and shorter sleep latency were associated with lower levels of permissive parenting. Further, mothers' race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status moderated the association between actigraphy-based sleep quality (i.e. sleep efficiency, long wake episodes) and permissive parenting. Specifically, a negative association between sleep efficiency and permissive parenting was evident only for African-American mothers. In addition, a positive association between more frequent night wakings and permissive parenting was evident only for mothers from lower socioeconomic status households. The findings highlight the benefits of longer and higher-quality sleep for reducing the risk of permissive parenting, especially among ethnic minority mothers and mothers from lower socioeconomic status households.

Sleep as a support for social competence, peer relations, and cognitive functioning in preschool children.

Evidence that sleep influences social and cognitive adaptation for school-age children and adolescents is accumulating rapidly, but less research focuses on the role of sleep for adaptive functioning during early childhood. We addressed these questions using actigraphy to assess sleep duration, sleep quality, and variability in sleep schedules in relation to a range of social/emotional and cognitive measures, including receptive vocabulary, emotion understanding, peer acceptance, social skills, social engagement, and temperament. Children in a convenience sample (N = 62, 40 boys, mean age = 4.15 yrs, 67% European American) wore actigraphs for 4-7 days, with sleep and wake states determined using Sadeh's scoring algorithm. Older children spent less time in bed at night and ethnic minority children (mostly African Americans) slept less at night and had lower sleep efficiency than did European American ethnic status children. Bivariate relations (controlling for sex, age, and ethnicity) between sleep variables and child adaptation scores showed that sleep duration was positively associated with peer acceptance, social skills, social engagement, receptive vocabulary, and understanding of the causes of emotions. Fewer variables were associated with nighttime sleep quality and variability and these tended to be related to outcome variables suggestive of behavioral and emotional regulation. Results suggest that sleep parameters are broadly implicated in the adjustment of preschool age children.

The development of a scale to assess children's and adolescents' sleep environments.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To develop a measure of children's sleep environments and to assess its initial reliability and validity. METHODS: This cross-sectional study consisted of an online survey for parents of children ages 5-18 years across the United States. A total of 840 parents/caregivers (Mage = 40.6 years, standard deviation = 8.6; 72.0% female) completed surveys regarding a target child (Mage = 10.4 years, standard deviation = 3.8). The items on the scale that was developed were evaluated with exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses in separate random sample halves of the dataset. Cronbach's alpha coefficients were calculated to assess internal consistency across multiple demographic groups. We explored convergent and discriminant validity by examining associations with measures from the nomological net of constructs surrounding the children's sleep environment. Finally, we examined incremental/unique predictive validity of the full scale and its subscales through regression analyses. RESULTS: The Children's and Adolescents' Sleep Environment Scale (13 items) produced 3 factors: general environmental hazards (7 items), availability of bedding materials (2 items), and presence of electronics (4 items). The full scale and its subscales showed strong discriminant validity, and analyses suggested that the Children's and Adolescents' Sleep Environment Scale and its subscales were generalizable across diverse demographic groups. Finally, after controlling for children's sleep hygiene, sleep disturbances, behavioral problems, and family functioning, the full-scale Children's and Adolescents' Sleep Environment Scale significantly predicted children's sleepiness, as did the general environmental hazards and presence of electronics subscales in a separate regression analysis. CONCLUSIONS: The Children's and Adolescents' Sleep Environment Scale shows strong psychometric properties and has emerged as both a reliable and valid indicator of children's and adolescents' sleep environments and their potential impact on children's sleep and sleep-related behavior. CITATION: Peltz JS, Rogge RD, Elmore-Staton L, Spilsbury J, Buckhalt JA. The development of a scale to assess children's and adolescents' sleep environments. J Clin Sleep Med. 2022;18(10):2353-2365.

Developmental trajectories of respiratory sinus arrhythmia and preejection period in middle childhood.

Autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity has been linked repeatedly to children's socioemotional and behavioral adaptive functioning and development, yet the literature on how various indexes of ANS activity develop in childhood is sparse. We utilized latent growth modeling to investigate the development of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), an established index of parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), and preejection period (PEP), a marker of sympathetic nervous system (SNS) influence on the heart, in children aged 8-10 years. At age 8, 251 children (128 girls, 123 boys; 162 European American, 89 African American) participated. Longitudinal data were collected during two additional waves when children were 9 and 10 years of age, with a 1-year lag between each wave. Children's RSA and PEP exhibited significant stability over time. Marginally significant variability was found among children in how RSA changed over time (slope), but there was no significant interindividual variability in PEP changes over development. A conditional growth curve model (i.e., one with predictor variables) showed that initial levels of RSA and PEP and the slope of RSA over time were predicted by several demographic factors including the child's sex and race; RSA of European American children showed significant increases over time while African American children had higher initial RSA but no significant change over time. Findings extend basic knowledge in developmental biopsychology and have implications for research focusing on ANS measures as important predictors, moderators, and mediators of childhood adaptation.

Attachment representations, sleep quality and adaptive functioning in preschool age children.

Both the attachment system and sleep are considered to be important biopsychosocial regulators of development and of adaptive functioning in children, and there is a substantial literature suggesting that the two systems may be mutually influencing. To date, however, the bulk of research attempting to link these systems has focused on infancy and the results of empirical studies are mixed. Thirty-nine preschool children participated in this study (valid sleep data for 34 cases). Attachment representations were assessed using the Attachment Story Completion Task (ASCT) and sleep was assessed using objective (i.e., actigraphy) measures. Analyses revealed that the coherence of child narratives and security scored from the ASCT were related to sleep quality indices (e.g., Sleep Activity, Wake Minutes after Sleep Onset, Sleep Efficiency). Additional analyses examined external correlates of attachment representations and tested possible interactions of attachment and sleep. No significant mediated interactions across attachment and sleep domains were found. Although the direction of effects cannot be determined, the results suggest that parent-child relationship and sleep organization are intertwined for preschool age children and the joint effects of these biopsychosocial regulators should be studied further.

Marital psychological and physical aggression and children's mental and physical health: direct, mediated, and moderated effects.

Relations between marital aggression (psychological and physical) and children's health were examined. Children's emotional insecurity was assessed as a mediator of these relations, with distinctions made between marital aggression against mothers and fathers and ethnicity (African American or European American), socioeconomic status, and child gender examined as moderators of effects. Participants were 251 community-recruited families, with multiple reporters of each construct. Aggression against either parent yielded similar effects for children. Children's emotional insecurity mediated the relation between marital aggression and children's internalizing, externalizing, and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. No differences were found in these pathways for African American and European American families or as a function of socioeconomic status or child gender.

The alcohol-aggression link: children's aggression expectancies in marital arguments as a function of the sobriety or intoxication of the arguing couple.

Children's expectancies of man-woman and woman-man aggression during arguments between individuals who were either intoxicated or sober were examined. The role of child and familial characteristics in influencing these expectancies was assessed. We examined children's expectations of interadult verbal/psychological and physical aggression during simulated arguments presented to children on videotapes. A community sample (N = 156) of children and young adolescents (6-14-year olds) participated. Children expected higher levels of aggression during conflict when they thought that one or both participants in conflict were intoxicated versus sober. Further, higher levels of verbal versus physical interadult conflict were expected during the disputes. These findings build on the literature by demonstrating that elementary school age children and young adolescents exhibit expectancies that link the consumption of alcohol with increased verbal and physical aggression in marital arguments. These alcohol-aggression expectancies were robust and were evident in relation to either the man's or woman's perpetration of aggression against the spouse. Elucidation of factors that can influence associations between aggression and alcohol consumption are of importance and have broad implications for family functioning.

Sleep and cognitive functioning in childhood: Ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and sex as moderators.

We examined children's sleep at age 9 as a predictor of developmental trajectories of cognitive performance from ages 9 to 11 years. The effects of sleep on cognition are not uniform and thus we tested race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status (SES), and sex as moderators of these associations. At the first assessment, 282 children aged 9.44 years (52% boys, 65% European American [EA], 35% African American [AA]) participated. Two more waves of data collection spaced 1 year apart followed. The majority of children (63%) were living at or below the poverty line. Children's sleep was measured objectively with actigraphy and 2 well-established sleep parameters were derived: duration, indexed by sleep minutes between sleep onset and wake time, and quality, indexed by efficiency. Multiple cognitive functioning domains were examined with the Woodcock Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities (WJ III). Across the sample, higher sleep efficiency, but not duration, was associated with better cognitive performance. Significant moderation effects emerged. Controlling for SES, AA children scored lower on general intellectual ability and working memory (WM) at age 11 only if they experienced lower sleep efficiency at age 9. Further, boys scored lower on general abilities and processing speed (PS) at age 11 only if their sleep efficiency was lower at age 9. Findings indicate that lower sleep efficiency may contribute to lower cognitive functioning especially for AA children and boys. These vulnerabilities appear to emerge early in development and are maintained over time. Results underscore the importance of individual differences in explicating relations between sleep and children's cognitive performance. (PsycINFO Database Record

Economic adversity and children's sleep problems: multiple indicators and moderation of effects.

OBJECTIVE: Toward explicating relations between economic adversity and children's sleep, we examined associations between multiple indicators of socioeconomic status (SES)/adversity and children's objectively and subjectively derived sleep parameters; ethnicity was examined as potential moderator. METHODS: Participants were 276 third- and fourth-grade children and their families (133 girls; M age = 9.44 years; SD = .71): 66% European American (EA) and 34% African American (AA). Four SES indicators were used: income-to-needs ratio, perceived economic well-being, maternal education, and community poverty. Children wore actigraphs for 7 nights and completed a self-report measure to assess sleep problems. RESULTS: Objectively and subjectively assessed sleep parameters were related to different SES indicators, and overall worse sleep was evident for children from lower SES homes. Specifically, children from homes with lower income-to-needs ratios had higher levels of reported sleep/wake problems. Parental perceived economic well-being was associated with shorter sleep minutes and greater variability in sleep onset for children. Lower mother's education was associated with lower sleep efficiency. Children who attended Title 1 schools had shorter sleep minutes. Ethnicity was a significant moderator of effects in the link between some SES indicators and children's sleep. AA children's sleep was more negatively affected by income-to-needs ratio and mother's education than was the sleep of EA children. CONCLUSIONS: The results advocate for the importance of specifying particular SES and sleep variables used because they may affect the ability to detect associations between sleep and economic adversity.

Preschoolers' daytime respiratory sinus arrhythmia and nighttime sleep.

We examined the association between preschoolers' (N=29; 20 boys; M age = 3.99 years, SD=.69) daytime parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activity indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and their nighttime sleep. Children's baseline RSA was assessed in the laboratory. Sleep was monitored for seven consecutive nights at the child's home via actigraphy and the following sleep parameters were derived: sleep minutes, sleep activity index and sleep efficiency. Regression analyses showed that after controlling for potential confounds, higher RSA was a predictor of lower sleep activity and higher sleep efficiency. Results highlight the importance of physiological regulation for the sleep of healthy preschool children.

The link between marital conflict and child adjustment: parent-child conflict and perceived attachments as mediators, potentiators, and mitigators of risk.

Parent-child conflict and perceived attachments to parents were examined as predictors, mediators, and moderators in the marital conflict-child adjustment connection in a sample of older children and young adolescents. After controlling for marital conflict, parent-child conflict predicted additional unique variance mainly for children's externalizing problems, and attachments to parents accounted for unique variance in children's externalizing and internalizing problems. Moderation effects illustrated that a higher level of parent-child conflict was a vulnerability factor, whereas a secure attachment was a protective factor, for behavior problems associated with marital conflict. Mediation effects were also evident and supported the proposition that parent-child conflict and attachment to parents mostly are partial mediators of effects in the marital conflict-child outcomes link. The findings illustrate the aggregation, potentiation, and amelioration of risk for adjustment problems associated with marital conflict, and highlight the importance of assessing multiple systems within the family.