Abstract

The authors examined the association of maternal mental health symptoms and symptom clusters with the sleeping behaviors of toddlers living in low-income homes. The sample is comprised of 174 racially diverse mother and toddler (15–19 months old) dyads who were participating in a longitudinal birth cohort study. Dyads were initially recruited from Women, Infant, and Children clinics in a Midwestern county of the United States. Maternal mental health symptoms were measured with self-reports of depression (Center for Epidemiological Studies–Depression), parenting stress (Parenting Stress Index Very Short Form), and parenting self-efficacy. Toddler sleeping behaviors were measured with an adaptation of the Tayside Children’s Sleep Questionnaire that assessed toddler difficulties in initiating or maintaining sleep (DIMS). Maternal mental health symptom clusters were identified with latent profile analysis and toddler DIMS were regressed on maternal mental health symptoms. We found that 1 SD worse maternal depression, parenting stress, or parenting self-efficacy predicted 0.18–0.24 SD worse toddler DIMS (p < .05). Moreover, we found that the cluster of adverse maternal mental health symptoms predicted nearly 0.75 SD worse toddler DIMS as compared with the cluster of good maternal mental health symptoms (p < .05). These findings provide insight into how maternal mental health symptom clusters may be important in understanding sleep behaviors in early toddlerhood, a sensitive period of sleep development, and underscore the need to support mothers with co-occurring adverse mental health symptoms, as their children may be at higher risk for DIMS.

摘要

作者研究了母亲心理健康症状和症状群与生活在低收入家庭的幼儿的睡眠行为之间的关系。样本由参与纵向出生队列研究的 174 名种族多样化的母亲和幼儿（15-19 个月大）组成。Dyads 最初是从美国中西部县的妇女、婴儿和儿童诊所招募的。母亲的心理健康症状通过抑郁症的自我报告（流行病学研究中心-抑郁症）、育儿压力（育儿压力指数非常短形式）和育儿自我效能来衡量。采用泰赛德儿童睡眠问卷对幼儿睡眠行为进行测量，该问卷评估幼儿在开始或维持睡眠方面的困难 (DIMS)。通过潜在特征分析确定了孕产妇心理健康症状群，并根据孕产妇心理健康症状对幼儿 DIMS 进行了回归。我们发现 1SD更严重的母亲抑郁、养育压力或养育自我效能预测 0.18-0.24 SD更差的幼儿 DIMS ( p < .05)。此外，我们发现，与母体良好的心理健康症状群相比，母体不良心理健康症状群预测的幼儿 DIMS 差近 0.75 SD ( p < .05)。这些发现提供了对母亲心理健康症状群如何在理解幼儿早期睡眠行为方面的重要见解，这是睡眠发育的敏感时期，并强调需要支持同时出现不良心理健康症状的母亲，因为他们的孩子可能DIMS 的风险更高。