About this srcd poster session

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Panel information
Panel 10. Health, Growth, Injury

Abstract

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Parent-child relationships can be conceptualized through parent-child relational boundaries, characterized as cohesive (well-defined but appropriate, allowing closeness and support without compromising autonomy), disengaged (rigid, reflecting detachment and emotional distance), and enmeshed (lacking appropriate boundaries, hindering autonomy). Parent-child cohesion is associated with better developmental outcomes, including fewer internalizing and externalizing behaviors, than disengagement or enmeshment (Sturge-Apple, 2010). Although optimal developmental outcomes are supported by healthy sleep and high-quality parent-child relationships are associated with better child sleep (Rojo-Wissar et al., 2020), less is known about how parent-child relational boundaries relate to child sleep. It is also uncertain how child temperament interacts with parent-child relational boundaries to affect sleep, especially in older children (Williams, 2019). Effortful control, a dimension of temperament reflecting self-regulation, is of particular interest as it may be protective in children exposed to adversity (Thompson et al., 2020) and may moderate associations between parent-child relational boundaries and behavioral outcomes (Coe et al., 2024). Prior research examining parent-child relational boundaries, child sleep, and temperament consists primarily of cross-sectional studies using parental reports of sleep in early childhood among predominantly middle-class white families with little adversity exposure. Here, we examine whether effortful control moderates associations between parent-child relational boundaries in preschool and actigraphy-measured sleep in middle childhood among a diverse sample of children from predominantly low-income families with high adversity exposure.

Participants were 90 families participating in a longitudinal study on markers of risk and resilience. Children were 51% female, 24% non-Hispanic White, 13% non-Hispanic Black, 50% Hispanic, 12% non-Hispanic biracial, 42% maltreatment-exposed; and 89% of families received public assistance. At preschool age, an observational rating system was used to code parent-child relational quality and boundaries from a video-recorded free-play task, and effortful control was assessed using the parent-report Toddler Behavioral Assessment Questionnaire. In middle childhood, mean and standard deviation of total sleep time (TST) were computed from summer wrist-actigraphy data. Models controlled for child baseline age, sex, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and adversity exposure.

There were no significant associations between relational boundaries or effortful control and mean TST. Higher parent-child disengagement during preschool was associated with more variability in TST in middle childhood (B=3.86, SE=1.32, p=0.004), and this effect was not moderated by effortful control. Effortful control did, however, moderate associations between both parent-child cohesion and enmeshment and TST variability. Specifically, higher cohesion was associated with less variability in TST (Figure 1) and higher enmeshment was associated with more variability in TST (Figure 2), but only among children low in effortful control.

Among a diverse sample of children with high adversity exposure, parent-child relational boundaries in preschool were associated with variability in sleep duration in middle childhood only when effortful control was low. Children low in effortful control appear to be particularly vulnerable to the impact of parent-child relationship dysfunction (high enmeshment, low cohesion) on sleep; in contrast, high effortful control appears to protect children from the impact of adverse parent-child relational boundaries. Interventions promoting healthy parent-child relational boundaries in early childhood may support consistent sleep, even into middle childhood.

Author information

Author	Role
Alissa A. Frame, Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University	Presenting author
Darlynn M. Rojo-Wissar, Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University; Bradley/Hasbro Children’s Research Center, E.P. Bradley Hospital	Non-presenting author
Maria Fana Mejia, Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University; Bradley/Hasbro Children’s Research Center, E.P. Bradley Hospital	Non-presenting author
Jesse L. Coe, Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University; Bradley/Hasbro Children’s Research Center, E.P. Bradley Hospital	Non-presenting author
Ronald Seifer, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	Non-presenting author
Audrey R. Tyrka, Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University; Laboratory for Clinical and Translational Neuroscience, Butler Hospital	Non-presenting author
Stephanie H. Parade, Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University; Bradley/Hasbro Children’s Research Center, E.P. Bradley Hospital	Non-presenting author

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