The Role of Parenting in Infant Sleep Regulation and Sleep Problem Risk (SIESTA)

Doug Teti

PI: Doug Teti

NIH/NICHD 1R01HD052809-01A1
ARRA NIH/NICHD 3R01HD052809-03S1
Administered in: Human Development

http://www.hhdev.psu.edu/hdfs/labs/siesta/index.html

Abstract:

A child's inability to get a good night's sleep has become a major public health concern, yet little is known about the early development of sleep habits in infancy. Significant sleep disruptions often become evident in the first year of life, tend to remain stable over time, and present as a chief complaint of parents to pediatricians. This project has three inter-related aims: 1) to investigate linkages between infant sleep quality, infant socio-emotional and cognitive developmental outcomes, and parent-infant relationship outcomes during the infant's first two years, 2) to examine the role of parenting practices in sleep contexts in predicting infant sleep quality, and the role of infant temperamental difficulty (from parent report and observational assessment) in moderating these relations, and 3) to examine parents' adaptation to infant sleep behavior, the determinants of such adaptation, and the role of parental adaptation to infant sleep in predicting infant sleep quality and infant and parent daytime functioning. This study will provide important information about the inter-linkages between infant sleep quality and infant day time outcomes, and the role of parenting and parental adaptation in accounting for these links.

In 2010, additional supplementary funds were obtained to collect diurnal salivary cortisol samples from mothers, fathers, and infants at all seven data collection points (1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 18, and 24 months of age) and to pay the costs for the assays of these samples.