Intergenerational Coresidence With Children and Grandchildren and Maternal Sleep Duration at Midlife

Mothers with young children tend to have shorter sleep durations than childfree women, but previous research has not considered heterogeneity in sleep duration among midlife mothers who have varying coresidential patterns with their adult, minor, and grandchildren. We examine the distribution of sleep duration across mothers' different intergenerational coresidential contexts (living without any children, living with any minor children, living with only adult children, and living with any grandchildren) and test how these patterns differ across racial/ethnic groups.

Regression analyses estimate sleep duration among a sample of midlife mothers with minor and adult children and grandchildren from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) data (N = 3,300). Moderation analyses consider differences across racial/ethnic groups (non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic).

Relative to the mothers with no coresiding children or grandchildren, mothers with coresiding minor or adult children reported less sleep. However, this gap varies across racial/ethnic groups; specifically, the lower sleep duration for mothers with coresidential children is only significant for White and Black mothers, not Hispanic mothers.

Sleep is a critical health indicator across the life course and a contributor to other health outcomes later in life. Thus, it is important to identify whose sleep is most vulnerable-especially in midlife when sleep trajectories are the groundwork for later-life well-being. We demonstrate the importance of coresidential status with adult and minor children and grandchildren on the sleep of mothers in midlife, drawing specific attention to the differences across racial/ethnic groups.