Sleep Problems, Daily Napping Behavior, and Social-Emotional Functioning among Young Children from Families Referred to Child Protective Services

ABSTRACT

Objective/Background

Insufficient and/or poor-quality sleep may contribute to poor social-emotional well-being, and vice versa, among young children who have experienced maltreatment. This study examined longitudinal associations between sleep and social-emotional functioning among a sample of infants and toddlers from families involved with Child Protective Services (CPS) for maltreatment.

Participants

Participants were 123 parents and their infant or toddler (baseline age 10 to 24 months) from families referred to CPS for maltreatment.

Methods

Data were collected at baseline and at 3, 6 and 9 months post-baseline. At all time points, parents completed a questionnaire about their child’s social-emotional functioning including internalizing behavior, externalizing behavior, and competence in social-emotional skills and social relatedness. At 3 months post-baseline, parents reported about their child’s sleep problems and daily napping behavior.

Results

Higher baseline externalizing behavior was associated with a greater propensity for sleep problems at 3 months post-baseline. Sleep problems at 3 months post-baseline were associated with higher internalizing and higher externalizing behavior at 9 months post-baseline. Daily napping at 3 months post-baseline was associated with lower internalizing behavior, lower externalizing behavior, and higher competence at 9 months post-baseline.

Conclusions

Among this sample of young children from families involved with CPS for maltreatment, parents’ concerns about their child having a sleep problem longitudinally associated with children’s internalizing and externalizing behavior. Children’s daily napping behavior longitudinally associated with later internalizing behavior, externalizing behavior, and competence.

Acknowledgments

We thank the parents and children who participated in this study, and their families. We also thank editor David Preston for his assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development under Grant R01 HD061362; the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development under Grant U54HD083091; the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Nursing Research Omics and Symptom Science Training Program at the University of Washington under Grant T32NR016913; the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Nursing Research, Center for Innovation in Sleep Self-Management under grant P30NR016585; and the University of Washington Warren G. Magnuson Scholarship Award. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.