A child's inability to get a good night's sleep has become a major public health concern. Among children of preschool age and older, sleep disturbances are linked to daytime behavior problems, sleepiness and poor attention, and academic underachievement. Very little, by contrast, is known about the impact of sleep problems in infancy on infant day time functioning. This is noteworthy, in light of the fact that significant sleep disruptions can become evident in the first year of life, tend to remain stable over time, and present as a chief complaint of parents to pediatricians. This application is consistent with the stated mission of NICHD and responds to PA-05-046, """"""""Research on Sleep and Sleep Disorders"""""""" and has three inter-related aims.
Aim 1 : To investigate linkages between infant sleep quality, infant socio-emotional and cognitive developmental outcomes, and parent-infant relationship outcomes during the infant's first two years. Outcomes of interest include infant stress reactivity (cortisol), emotion regulation in responses to stress, security of infant-mother attachment, infant behavior problems and behavior competencies, quality of compliance to maternal directives, information processing ability, and quality of maternal-infant emotional availability during interaction. In addressing aim 1, we will document individual differences in when, during the course of the first two years, linkages between infant sleep quality and infant developmental outcomes emerge, to what degree they are associated with severity and chronicity of sleep disruption, and whether and when these linkages dissipate if infants develop more organized, regulated sleep with age.
Aim 2 : To examine the role of parenting practices in sleep contexts in predicting infant sleep quality, and the role of infant temperamental difficulty (from parent report and observational assessment) in moderating these relations.
Aim 3 : To examine parents'adaptation to infant sleep behavior, the determinants of such adaptation, and the role of parental adaptation to infant sleep in predicting infant sleep quality and infant and parent daytime functioning. The focus on parental adaptation is based on emergent information that whether or not a child is identified with a sleep problem, and whether that problem has consequences beyond the sleep context, depends greatly upon parents'perception and tolerance of child sleep behavior. This focus is also rooted in theoretical formulations that developmental problems in infancy and early childhood can only be understood in the context of the child's relationships with caregivers. This study will provide important information about the inter-linkages between infant sleep quality and infant day time outcomes, and the role of parenting and parental adaptation in accounting for these links.

Public Health Relevance

A child's inability to get a good night's sleep is major public health concern. Sleep disruption in children of preschool age and older is linked to behavior problems, daytime sleepiness, poor attention, and academic underachievement. Very little, by contrast, is known about the impact of infant sleep problems, or the role of parenting in relation to them, on infant cognitive and emotional development. This study's findings will have immediate relevance for parents and health care providers because it will clarify the most important predictors of infant sleep behavior and provide suggestions for pediatric practice.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HD052809-05
Application #
8307535
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-RPHB-B (04))
Program Officer
Haverkos, Lynne
Project Start
2008-09-30
Project End
2014-06-30
Budget Start
2012-07-01
Budget End
2014-06-30
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2012
Total Cost
$465,293
Indirect Cost
$124,685
Name
Pennsylvania State University
Department
Other Health Professions
Type
Schools of Allied Health Profes
DUNS #
003403953
City
University Park
State
PA
Country
United States
Zip Code
16802
Whitesell, Corey J; Crosby, Brian; Anders, Thomas F et al. (2018) Household chaos and family sleep during infants' first year. J Fam Psychol 32:622-631
Shimizu, Mina; Teti, Douglas M (2018) Infant Sleeping Arrangements, Social Criticism, and Maternal Distress in the First Year. Infant Child Dev 27:
Kim, Bo-Ram; Chow, Sy-Miin; Bray, Bethany et al. (2017) Trajectories of mothers' emotional availability: relations with infant temperament in predicting attachment security. Attach Hum Dev 19:38-57
Reader, Jonathan M; Teti, Douglas M; Cleveland, Michael J (2017) Cognitions about infant sleep: Interparental differences, trajectories across the first year, and coparenting quality. J Fam Psychol 31:453-463
Philbrook, Lauren E; Teti, Douglas M (2016) Associations between bedtime and nighttime parenting and infant cortisol in the first year. Dev Psychobiol 58:1087-1100
Teti, Douglas M; Shimizu, Mina; Crosby, Brian et al. (2016) Sleep arrangements, parent-infant sleep during the first year, and family functioning. Dev Psychol 52:1169-81
Philbrook, Lauren E; Teti, Douglas M (2016) Bidirectional associations between bedtime parenting and infant sleep: Parenting quality, parenting practices, and their interaction. J Fam Psychol 30:431-41
Batra, Erich K; Teti, Douglas M; Schaefer, Eric W et al. (2016) Nocturnal Video Assessment of Infant Sleep Environments. Pediatrics 138:
Jian, Ni; Teti, Douglas M (2016) Emotional availability at bedtime, infant temperament, and infant sleep development from one to six months. Sleep Med 23:49-58
Teti, Douglas M; Crosby, Brian; McDaniel, Brandon T et al. (2015) Marital and emotional adjustment in mothers and infant sleep arrangements during the first six months. Monogr Soc Res Child Dev 80:160-76

Showing the most recent 10 out of 17 publications