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Published on: February 11, 2017
Association between Maternal Personality Traits and Children's Sleep Disturbance: A Population-based Cohort Study in
1Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, National Center for Mental Health, Seoul, Korea.
Insights
Maternal borderline personality traits in mothers are linked to sleep disturbances in young children. Early assessment of maternal personality may help identify children at risk for sleep problems.
Area of Science:
- Child Psychology
- Maternal Mental Health
- Sleep Science
Background:
- Childhood sleep disturbances are influenced by various factors, including maternal characteristics.
- Maternal personality traits can impact child development and well-being.
- Understanding the maternal-child relationship in sleep health is crucial for early intervention.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the longitudinal association between maternal personality traits and children's sleep disturbance.
- To identify specific maternal personality traits that predict childhood sleep problems.
- To utilize cohort data from the Panel Study on Korean Children for this analysis.
Main Methods:
- Maternal personality traits were assessed using the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI).
- Child sleep disturbance was evaluated via parent surveys from 2010 to 2014.
- Statistical analyses included chi-square tests and binary logistic regression.
Main Results:
- Maternal somatic concerns correlated with child sleep disturbance at child ages 2 and 3.
- Maternal borderline features showed a significant relationship with child sleep disturbance from ages 2 to 5.
- High maternal borderline features at child age 1 predicted sleep disturbance in early childhood.
Conclusions:
- Maternal borderline personality traits are a significant predictor of sleep disturbance in early childhood.
- Assessing maternal personality, particularly borderline features, is important for understanding and addressing children's sleep problems.
- This study highlights the role of maternal psychological factors in pediatric sleep health.
Objective:
Sleep affects the development and severity of psychiatric symptoms in children, and maternal personality traits may influence children's sleep. We aimed to confirm the longitudinal effect of maternal personality traits on children's sleep disturbance using cohort data from the Panel Study on Korean Children.
Methods:
Maternal personality traits were assessed using the Personality Assessment Inventory in 2009, and the sleep disturbance of children was assessed using parent survey data from 2010 to 2014 (2nd-6th waves). Among the 11 clinical scales of the Personality Assessment Inventory, the 5 scales that showed the most significant correlations were analyzed. Presence or absence of child sleep disturbance was evaluated with a chi-square test, and the effect of the Personality Assessment Inventory was assessed by a binary logistic regression analysis with child sleep disturbance as the dependent variable.
Results:
Of the 171 mother-child dyads, 92 were classified into the sleep disturbance group and 79 were classified into the normal sleep group. Maternal somatic concerns showed a significant relationship with children's sleep disturbance at years 2 and 3. Maternal borderline features demonstrated a significant relationship with children's sleep disturbance from years 2 to 5. The binary logistic regression analysis revealed a significant association between high borderline features and children's sleep disturbance at years 2 and 3.
Conclusion:
High maternal borderline features evaluated at child age 1 were related to sleep disturbance in early childhood. In assessing a children's sleep problems, it may be important to examine mothers' dysfunctional personality traits.
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