0251 The role of parental absence and parental conflict on child and adolescent sleep

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Parents are one of the most salient contexts for child development, and parental divorce and death are substantial stressors for children. Previous research suggests parental conflict is related to difficulties in attachment, emotion regulation, self-esteem, and academic performance in children. A growing body of research suggests parental conflict can negatively affect sleep duration, latency, sleepiness, and wake after sleep onset. There is limited evidence that some children who experience parental death report worse sleep. Our goal was to begin to investigate the impact of parental divorce and death on multiple sleep measures in a lifespan archival sample. Methods Data was refined from the Terman Life Cycle Study, which has followed 1,528 gifted Californian children since 1921. For this analysis, we utilized cross-sectional data from the 1921 assessment (max. N=1202; 44% female, M age=12y, range=6-21y). Participants or their parents reported whether parental death (N=123) or divorce (N=62) had occurred, as well as the child’s usual hour of sleeping or waking, how long it took them to fall asleep, the quality of their sleep, and whether they had night terrors. In this preliminary analysis, we evaluate exposure to parental divorce and death on children’s sleep descriptively. Results Parental divorce was associated with sleep quality (p=.01), but we mostly found no significant impact relations of parental divorce or death on children’s sleep (ps=.21-.90). In this sample, 97% of children from intact families (N=1112) had good sleep quality compared to the 92% of children from families with divorced parents (N=62). Conclusion In this well-characterized archival longitudinal study of children followed since 1921, we found little evidence that parental divorce or death were related to sleep cross-sectionally. Multiple waves of sleep data are available, and we will evaluate associations longitudinally in follow-up analyses, as well as possible associations between time-limited effects (length of time since the event) or sensitive periods in terms of age. Our null results may be the result of cohort differences (the sample was born, on average, in 1910) or limited reporting on sleep by participants and their parents. Support (If Any) AG027001