Early Childhood Co-Sleeping Predicts Behavior Problems in Preadolescence: A Prospective Cohort Study

ABSTRACT

Objective/Background

Co-sleeping is common practice around the globe. The relationship between early childhood co-sleeping and adolescent behavior problems remains uncertain. We aim to identify whether early childhood co-sleeping can predict behavior problems in preadolescence.

Participants

A cohort of 1,656 Chinese preschool children were followed up in adolescence.

Methods

Prospective cohort study design involving two waves of data collection from the China Jintan Cohort (1,656 children aged 3–5 years). Co-sleeping history was collected at 3-5-years-old via parent-reported questionnaire at wave I data collection. Behavior problems were measured twice in childhood and preadolescence, respectively. Adolescent behavior problems were measured by integrating data from self-report, parent-report and teacher-report using the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment. Predictions were assessed using the general linear model with mixed effects on the inverse probability weight propensity-matched sample.

Results

1,656 children comprising 55.6% boys aged 4.9 ± 0.6 were initially enrolled in the first wave of data collection. In the second wave of data collection, 1,274 children were 10.99 ± 0.74 (76.9%) aged 10–13 years were retained. Early childhood co-sleeping is significantly associated with increased behavior problems in childhood (Odds Ratio [OR] 1.22–2.06, ps<0.03) and preadolescence (OR 1.40–2.27, ps<0.02). Moreover, co-sleeping history significantly predicted multiscale increase in internal (OR 1.63–2.61, ps<0.02) and external behavior problems in adolescence.

Conclusions

Early childhood co-sleeping is associated with multiple behavioral problems reported by parents, teachers, and children themselves. Early childhood co-sleeping predicts preadolescent internalizing and externalizing behavior after controlling for baseline behavior problems.

Acknowledgments

The authors thankfully acknowledge the Jintan Local Cohort Group for data collection. Special thanks are extended to the participating children and their families from Jintan City.

Data availability statement

Data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (R01-ES018858, K02-ES-019878, and K01-ES015877), and the University of Pennsylvania Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology (P30-ES013508).