Associations between parental involvement at bedtime and young children's evening cortisol and nighttime sleep
1Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York, USA.
Insights
Parental involvement at bedtime helps children sleep better by lowering physiological arousal. Greater parental presence and contact reduce evening cortisol, leading to longer and more efficient sleep for young children.
Area of Science:
- Child Psychology
- Sleep Science
- Pediatric Health
Background:
- Parental roles in regulating children's arousal for sleep are theorized but not empirically tested.
- The link between parenting behaviors, children's physiological arousal, and sleep outcomes requires investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine evening cortisol levels as a mediator between parental involvement at bedtime and children's nighttime sleep.
- To investigate how parental presence and contact influence child arousal and subsequent sleep duration and quality.
Main Methods:
- Assessed parental involvement (presence, contact, activities) from video recordings of bedtime routines.
- Measured children's evening cortisol via saliva samples over three nights.
- Determined children's nighttime sleep duration and efficiency using actigraphy.
Main Results:
- Greater parental presence at bedtime was linked to lower child evening cortisol, which in turn predicted longer sleep duration and higher sleep efficiency.
- Increased parental contact at bedtime was associated with lower child evening cortisol, predicting higher sleep efficiency.
- Child evening cortisol levels mediated the relationship between specific parental involvement behaviors and sleep outcomes.
Conclusions:
- Parental involvement in bedtime routines can promote healthy sleep in young children.
- Reduced physiological arousal, indicated by lower evening cortisol, is a key pathway through which parental involvement improves sleep.
- Findings support interventions encouraging parental engagement to enhance child sleep quality.
Abstract:
Parents are theorized to play an important role in helping young children to downregulate arousal to achieve sufficient and good-quality sleep. To my knowledge, however, the links between parenting and children's physiological arousal at bedtime and subsequent nighttime sleep have not been empirically tested. The present study examined 3- to 6-year-old children's evening cortisol levels as a pathway linking parental involvement at bedtime to children's nighttime sleep duration and quality. Fifty-one children (53% male, 47% female; 80% White, 18% Biracial, 2% Black) and their families participated. Parental involvement (presence, contact, quiet activities) was assessed by raters from video recordings of one night of bedtime. Children's evening cortisol levels were measured from saliva samples taken at bedtime by parents across three nights. Children's nighttime sleep (minutes, efficiency) was determined from an actigraph worn the same three nights. Path analyses controlling for child and family demographics provided support for three significant indirect effects: lower child evening cortisol acted as a pathway linking greater parental presence at bedtime to more child nighttime sleep minutes and higher sleep efficiency, and lower child evening cortisol also linked greater parental contact at bedtime to higher sleep efficiency. Among this low-risk sample, the findings suggest that encouraging parental involvement in young children's bedtime routine may promote healthy sleep by way of reduced child physiological arousal.
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