Abstract
Poor sleep in children predicts mental and physical disorders later in life. Identifying and changing modifiable factors associated with sleep problems in young children may improve their health trajectory. Our aim was to establish whether overprotective parenting was associated with problems sleeping in children. Parents of children aged 2–6 years completed questionnaires about their own anxiety, parenting style, and about their children's sleep. We obtained 307 reports on 197 children from 240 parents. Using mixed-effects linear regression, we found that maternal (beta = 0.26, 95% CI 0.11 to 0.41, p = 0.001) and paternal (beta = 0.35, 95% CI 0.17 to 0.53, p < 0.001) overprotection were associated with impaired sleep in children. This relationship remained unchanged when controlling for parental anxiety. Decreasing parents’ overprotection may improve children’s sleep, and reduce the risk of physical and mental disorders later in their life.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1340-1348 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Child Psychiatry and Human Development |
| Volume | 53 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Dec 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by the Nova Scotia Health Authority Research Fund (Award Number 893305).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
ASJC Scopus Subject Areas
- Pediatrics, Perinatology, and Child Health
- Developmental and Educational Psychology
- Psychiatry and Mental health
PubMed: MeSH publication types
- Journal Article
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
