Psychosocial Functioning Mediates Parental Depression and Sleep in Autistic Children

Parents of children who have sleep difficulties often experience depression. Although complex, this relationship may be at least partially explained because the children of parents with depression are more likely to experience poor psychosocial functioning, which can negatively impact their sleep. Autistic children are particularly at risk for sleep difficulties, and it is important to better understand these relationships as scant to no research has been done that investigates parental depression, child psychosocial functioning, and child sleep among autistic children. The current study examined whether parental perception of their child's psychosocial functioning mediated the relationship between parental depression and their child's sleep. The sample (N = 74) consisted of parents (77% female) reporting on their children aged 6-12 (M = 8.85, SD = 1.96; 74.3% male). All children were diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder and had sleep complaints as reported by their parents. Measures included the Child Sleep Health Questionnaire (CSHQ), sleep onset latency (SOL) and total sleep time (TST) from 14 days of sleep diaries, the Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC), and a question asking if the parent had been diagnosed with depression (yes/no). Child psychosocial functioning significantly mediated the relationship between parental depression and child sleep (CSHQ and TST). These results indicate that child psychosocial functioning may help to explain the connection between diagnosed parental depression and poor child sleep among autistic children.