Co-sleeping: gender differences in college students' retrospective reports of sleeping with parents during childhood

Area of Science:

• Sociology
• Developmental Psychology
• Anthropology

Background:

• Co-sleeping, or bed-sharing with parents, is a common infant sleep practice globally.
• Cultural norms and parental preferences significantly influence co-sleeping prevalence and duration.
• Understanding childhood sleep arrangements provides insights into family dynamics and child development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the prevalence and patterns of childhood co-sleeping among Caucasian college students.
• To examine potential sex-specific differences in co-sleeping duration and age of cessation.
• To explore retrospective reports of co-sleeping practices from infancy through the first year of life.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective survey data collected from 161 women and 111 men, Caucasian college students.
• Participants reported on their co-sleeping experiences during infancy and early childhood.
• Statistical analysis was used to identify patterns and sex differences in co-sleeping.

Main Results:

• Co-sleeping was reported by a significant proportion of participants in the first week (33.7%), first month (29.4%), and second month (27.5%) after birth.
• A notable percentage reported co-sleeping throughout the first year (6.3% of women, 11.9% of men).
• Sex-specific patterns emerged: more women co-slept in the earliest periods, while more men co-slept at older ages.

Conclusions:

• Childhood co-sleeping is a prevalent practice with varying durations.
• Boys tend to co-sleep with parents for longer periods than girls.
• Girls are more frequently and at younger ages removed from the parental sleep environment compared to boys.