0991 LONGITUDINAL INDIRECT EFFECTS OF MOTHERS’ WORK SCHEDULE FLEXIBILITY ON CHILDREN’S SLEEP: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF BEDTIME ADHERENCE

Abstract

Among adults, rigid work schedules are negatively associated with sleep health. Less is known about whether parents’ work schedules influence children’s sleep and how. This study examined associations of mothers’ work schedule flexibility with children’s sleep over time and whether these associations were mediated by children’s bedtime adherence. Longitudinal, two-wave data were drawn from a sample of working mothers (Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study) when the focal child was age 5 and 9 (N=1135). At each wave, mothers rated the flexibility of their work schedule (1=not flexible to 4=very flexible), child’s habitual sleep duration (in hours) and difficulty getting to sleep (0=no, 1=yes), and weekday frequency (0–5 nights) with which their child adhered to their bedtime. Mediation (bootstrapping) modeling analyses adjusted for child age and gender, and mothers’ sociodemographic characteristics, work hours, and work schedules (night/evening/weekend/variable). Cross-sectionally, greater mothers’ work schedule flexibility predicted more frequent bedtime adherence (p<0.001) which, in turn, predicted children having longer sleep duration (p<0.001) and less difficulty getting to sleep (p<0.001). With every increase in bedtime adherence, average sleep duration was 10 minutes/day longer and the odds of having difficulty getting to sleep were 13% lower. Longitudinally, increases in mothers’ work schedule flexibility (from child ages 5 to 9) predicted increases in bedtime adherence (p<0.05), which, in turn, predicted increases in child sleep duration at age 9, by 8 minutes/day more than at age 5 (p<0.001). Increases in mothers’ work schedule flexibility predicted decreased likelihood of child’s difficulty getting to sleep (p<0.01), but this association was not mediated by changes in bedtime adherence. Bedtime adherence mediates the association of mothers’ temporal work flexibility with their children’s sleep. Future interventions should consider how to improve bedtime practices in families with working mothers in order to promote child sleep health. R01HD073352 (L. Hale, PI)