Sleep Disruption in New Parents: An Intervention Trial. This competitive continuation proposal follows from a study of new fathers and mothers after the birth of their first infant. The previous sample was recruited from childbirth classes for which couples paid a fee; this sample will be recruited from free childbirth classes held for partnered and unpartnered women in lower socio-economic status. The primary aim remains to test effects of an environmental-behavioral intervention on sleep, fatigue, and measures of well-being (marital satisfaction, maternal competence, stress, and coping). The intervention will be introduced prior to delivery to allow mothers time to adapt. A stress and coping framework is again utilized to test the intervention to minimize the stress of sleep disruption for new mothers. Hypotheses will be tested using repeated measures analysis of variance to determine mean group differences. It is expected that: 1) The experimental group of low-income mothers (n=60) will have significantly higher sleep maintenance than controls (n=60) at all time points; 2) The experimental group will report significantly lower fatigue and higher role competence compared to controls at all postpartum time points (4, 8, & 12 weeks). A new hypothesis is added to address prior parental concerns about infant sleep at 8 weeks of age in relation to immunizations: Mothers who receive preparatory strategies to manage infant irritability post immunization will have infants with significantly less wake time during the night compared to controls. A secondary aim is to describe the process by which low-income mothers incorporate this intervention into their family life and evaluate its feasibility for other first-time mothers compared to the prior sample of middle and upper income parents. In the prior sample, few mothers returned to work at rigidly scheduled hours. Level of satisfaction with the intervention package will be ascertained for mothers before and after returning to work. More generalizable results from this targeted sample will be used to develop an educational intervention package for distribution to all adults preparing for parenthood. ? ? ?
