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Infant attachment and toddlers' sleep assessed by maternal reports and actigraphy: different measurement methods

Valérie Simard1, Annie Bernier, Marie-Ève Bélanger

  • 1Department of Psychology, Université de Sherbrooke (campus Longueuil), 150 place Charles-Le Moyne, Bureau 200, Longueuil, QC, Canada, J4K 0A8. valerie.simard@usherbrooke.ca

Journal of Pediatric Psychology
|February 23, 2013
PubMed

Insights

Maternal reports of resistant attachment in toddlers correlate with sleep disturbances, but objective sleep measures show no direct link. High sensitivity and smoothed actigraphy algorithms best capture sleep patterns.

Area of Science:

  • Child psychology
  • Sleep science
  • Developmental pediatrics

Background:

  • Attachment security influences child development.
  • Objective and subjective sleep measures offer different insights.
  • Actigraphy is a common tool for sleep assessment in children.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine the relationship between child attachment and sleep patterns.
  • To evaluate objective (actigraphy) and subjective (maternal diary) sleep measures.
  • To identify the optimal actigraphy algorithm for toddler sleep assessment.

Main Methods:

  • 55 mother-child dyads participated.
  • Attachment was assessed using the Strange Situation Procedure at 18 months.
  • Sleep was measured via actigraphy and maternal diaries at 2 years.

Main Results:

  • High sensitivity and smoothed actigraphy algorithms yielded the most reliable sleep data.
  • Maternal diaries overestimated sleep duration and underestimated wakefulness compared to actigraphy.
  • Resistant attachment was linked to longer maternal-reported nighttime wakefulness and reduced actigraphy-diary discrepancies.

Conclusions:

  • Mothers of children with resistant attachment are more attuned to nighttime awakenings.
  • Actigraphy and maternal diaries provide complementary, yet distinct, sleep information.
  • Careful selection of sleep measurement tools is crucial for research and clinical practice.
Abstract

Keywords:
actigraphyattachmentchildpreschoolsleep

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