Affiliative Parent-Adolescent Bedtime and Waketime Interactions are Associated with Adolescent Sleep

The current study examined whether evening and morning affiliation (i.e., warmth) and autonomy (i.e., more or less in charge) around sleep routines predicted adolescent sleep on weekdays.

Participants were 28 parent (M_age = 43.19; 85.17% mothers) and adolescent (M_age = 12.34 years) dyads who completed the same electronic diaries morning and evening for 10 days, with a total number of 221 nights observed across dyads. Sleep duration and sleep quality were assessed via the Pittsburgh Sleep Diary; degree of affiliation and autonomy around bedtime and waketime routines were assessed with single items on a visual analog scale. Multilevel modeling was utilized to evaluate the effects of more or less affiliation or autonomy on sleep outcomes (i.e., duration and quality) between and within dyads.

Across all participants, adolescents who reported more affiliative interactions with their parent around bedtime and waketime slept longer and had better sleep quality at night. Further, when adolescents experienced greater than average affiliative interactions with their parent than was typical for them, they had better sleep quality that night. Adolescent sleep quality and duration were not impacted by whether or not adolescents were in charge of their bedtime and waketime routines.

Findings support parents' role in social and emotional security and highlight the importance of affiliative parent interactions around the sleep period for optimal sleep for young adolescents.