Parental Anxiety, Depression, and Sleep Quality in Relation to Infant Sleep: A Two-Cohort Longitudinal Study

Parental mental health is linked to infant sleep, but research has focused mainly on mothers and on single distress dimensions. This study examined whether parental anxiety, depression, and sleep quality are associated with infant sleep across the first year, and whether mothers and fathers contribute differently.

Two independent cohorts of Taiwanese families (42 and 80 infants; 107 and 270 observations) were followed across the first year, assessed at 1-6 months (Cohort 1) and 1-12 months (Cohort 2). At each assessment, both parents completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and infant sleep was assessed by a sleep diary and the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire. Linear mixed-effects models with standardized predictors treated one cohort as discovery and the second as replication.

Poorer maternal sleep quality was associated with more parent-perceived night awakenings in both cohorts (b = 0.28 and 0.48), the only association that replicated. In the larger cohort, poorer maternal sleep quality was also associated with shorter nighttime sleep. Parental anxiety, depression, and paternal sleep quality showed no consistent associations.

Maternal sleep quality was the most robust parental correlate of infant sleep, most evident for perceived night awakenings. Extending a literature that has centered on maternal mood, these findings point to maternal sleep quality as a distinct correlate; in perinatal care, brief screening of maternal sleep quality may help flag families who could benefit from sleep-focused guidance or referral.