Relations Among Maternal Distress, Bedtime Practices, and Infant Sleep Quality

Undergraduate: Sophia Rowland

Faculty Advisor: Cathi Propper
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience

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Mothers with higher levels of depression and anxiety tend to report more sleep problems in their infants than mothers with lower levels of depression and anxiety. One mechanism by which maternal distress (i.e., depression and anxiety) could affect infant sleep outcomes is through the actions the mother performs as she readies her infant for nighttime sleep, referred to as maternal bedtime practices. Emerging literature links maternal distress with the practice of putting infants down for bed asleep, as well as greater amounts of close contact and directly arousing activities during the bedtime period. The interplay between maternal distress and bedtime practices has primarily been studied in Caucasian populations, even though African American children show worse sleep outcomes and are more likely to have mothers with depression. This study aims to examine the relationships between maternal distress (measured via self-report questionnaire), bedtime practices (coded from a video of the infant¿s bedtime), and infant sleep outcomes (determined by actigraphy), in an African American population. Findings indicate that higher maternal distress at 3 months predicts a use of directly arousing activities at 3 months, and that putting the infant down to bed awake more often at 3 months predicts better sleep outcomes at 6 months. This study supports and extends the current literature by demonstrating that maternal distress and bedtime practices play a role in infant sleep quality in African American populations.