ABSTRACTObjective: This article investigated whether work-to-family conflict (WFC) and work-to-family enrichment (WFE) were associated with employee sleep quality. WFC and WFE reflect the potential for experiences at work to negatively and positively influence nonworking life respectively, and may have implications for sleep quality. In this article, we examined whether WFC and WFE were linked with sleep quality via hedonic balance (i.e., positive affect relative to negative affect). Participants: The sample included 3,170 employed Australian parents involved in the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. Methods: Information on WFC, WFE, hedonic balance, sleep quality, and relevant covariates was collected through a structured interview and self-completion questionnaire. Results: WFC was associated with poorer sleep quality (β = .27, p < .001), and this relationship was stronger in males than females and in dual parent–single income families. WFC was also found to be indirectly associated with poor sleep quality via a lower hedonic balance (β = .17, 99% confidence interval [.14, .20]). WFE was not directly associated with sleep quality, but was indirectly associated with better sleep quality via a higher hedonic balance (β = –.04 [–.07, –.02]). Conclusions: These results indicate that aspects of the work–family interface are associated with employee sleep quality. Furthermore, affective experiences were found to link WFC and WFE with sleep quality. Workplace interventions that target WFC and WFE may have implications for employee sleep.

This study explored the impact of parental sleep quality on the experience of behavior problems by children with autism spectrum disorder. A 14-day daily diary was used in a sample of 176 mother-father couples. Dyadic multilevel models were conducted to examine the between-person and within-person effects of previous-night sleep quality on parents' rating of level of behavior problems by the child with autism spectrum disorder and level of positive and negative affect. Results indicated that persistently poor sleep quality was associated with between-person differences in initial rating of level of behavior problems by the child with autism spectrum disorder for mothers. At a within-person level, previous-night sleep quality moderated the association between rating of level of behavior problems by the child with autism spectrum disorder and level of positive and negative affect in fathers. Child-related stressors exerted less influence on fathers' affect following a day with poor sleep quality. Interventions aimed at enhancing sleep quality in parents of children with autism spectrum disorder may have important effects on parental psychological well-being.

Pediatric sleep disturbances are regularly diagnosed on the basis of parental reports. However, the impact of parental sleeping problems on parental perceptions and reports of their child's sleep has not yet been studied. We hypothesized that poor parental sleep decreases the parent-reported child sleep quality. A 1-week actigraph recording was performed in 100 children aged 2 to 6 years recruited in 16 day care centers. Their biological parents completed a sleep diary and a Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children (SDSC) on children's sleep. The parents also completed the Jenkins' sleep scale on their own sleep, the 12-item General Health Questionnaire, and questions on demographic factors. Linear regression analyses were performed to study the association of the parental Jenkins' score on their child's total SDSC score. Analyses were also performed for 3 of the subscales of the SDSC: disorders of excessive somnolence, disorders of initiating and maintaining sleep, and sleep-wake transition disorders. Parental sleeping problems were associated with more frequent reporting of children's sleeping problems. This association was unexplained by the actigraph measures of children's sleep, such as actual 24-hour sleep time and sleep efficiency, parental mental health problems, or any other tested potential confounder or mediator. Similar correlations were seen for the 3 analyzed subscales. Parental sleep quality was associated with overreporting of sleep problems in their children. This finding emphasizes the importance of considering parental sleep quality in the diagnosis, treatment, and research of pediatric sleeping problems.

Sleep has a significant influence on children's development. The objective of this study was to investigate Head Start children's sleeping patterns and the impact on cognitive and behavioural outcomes. Using the 2009 cohort of the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (N=2,868), information on sleeping patterns was assessed through parent interviews. Cognitive outcomes were assessed using direct assessments (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-IV, the Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test, and Subtests of the Woodcock-Johnson III) in addition to teacher report. Behavioural outcomes were assessed through parent and teacher reports. A multiple regression analysis was performed for each outcome variable. Descriptive findings showed that 89% of children had a regular bedtime at least 4days per week and that the average amount of sleep per night was 10.41hr. White mothers were more likely than other racial groups to adhere to a consistent bedtime, and maternal employment predicted less hour of sleep per night. Multiple regression analyses revealed that disrupted sleep had a negative influence on cognitive outcomes, especially in areas of mathematical problem solving, receptive language, teacher-reported literacy behaviours, and approaches to learning. Disrupted sleep was associated with the risk of misbehaviour by increasing teacher and parent ratings on aggressive behaviours, hyperactivity, and withdrawing in addition to decreased scores on overall social skills. Having an inconsistent bedtime negatively predicted expressive vocabulary and teacher-reported literacy behaviours. The findings of this study support the influential role of sleep on children's development. Sleeping through the night and having a consistent bedtime were found to be predictive of many areas of cognitive and behavioural development. Head Start staff can provide the supports to increase parental knowledge on appropriate child sleep practices.

BackgroundThe role of sleep deprivation in the relationship between child poly-victimization and pediatric quality of life (PedsQL) has received little attention. ObjectiveThis study aims to provide a profile of the association between child victimization and poly-victimization and PedsQL among children, examining the role of sleep quality patterns in these relationships. Participants and settingWe conducted a cross-sectional school survey study of family structure and child victimization among families in Hong Kong in 2016–17 with two-stage stratified sampling. The final sample consisted of 5, 567 students recruited from a representative sample of 107 kindergartens, primary schools, and secondary schools in all districts of Hong Kong. MethodsMulti-phase regression analysis and simple slope analysis were conducted to examine the moderating effects of sleep quality between child victimization and PedsQL. ResultsThe findings showed that children who experienced four or more types of victimization were more likely to show parasomnia and daytime dysfunction symptoms than those experiencing one to three types of victimization and non-victims. It also revealed significant relationships between child poly-victimization and lower levels of PedsQL, which were moderated by parasomnia and daytime dysfunction. ConclusionsThis study has implications for clinicians in targeting the pattern of sleep changes combined with holistic screening in outpatient services for early detection of child poly-victims.

The prospective Ulm-SPATZ study was investigated to assess the role of child sleeping quality between 4 to 6 years of age in affecting a partner’s sleeping and relationship satisfaction within a couple. The study was conducted using a triadic approach in which the child was included in the Actor-Partner-Interdependence Model (APIM). Sleeping quality of the child was determined by using the German version of the children’s sleep habits questionnaire, sleeping features of the parents were assessed by using the Munich chronotype questionnaire, and the partner relationship assessment was performed by employing the German version of the parenting stress index questionnaire. In 211 German triads, we observed that sleeping characteristics and partner relationship scores at different child ages are consistent for both men and women. Higher and statistically significant sleep duration, time spent in bed, the midpoint of sleep, time getting out of bed, and sleep onset in women compared to men during the working days were observed. The APIM analyses showed a significant direct effect of child sleep quality on the partner relationship satisfaction. In women, a mediated effect of child sleep quality acted through sleep duration and time spent in bed on the partner relationship satisfaction score during both free and working days. In men, low child sleep quality was found to be associated with increased sleep onset during both free and working days. Child sleep quality influences relationship satisfaction mostly in mothers, likely because of their higher involvement in childcare during working days. Distress in the couple could be counteracted by a major involvement of the fathers in child management.

Infants' sleeping patterns can influence parents' sleep and their well-being. Infants' sleeping problems can evoke negative emotions from their parents because of the influence the problems have on parents' lives. However, little is known regarding the associations between infants' night sleep patterns and parents' overall negativity toward their children. The objective of this study was to study this association. In a longitudinal design, we followed infants and their parents from 9 to 18 months. Overall, 392 families participated in the study. Parents' negativity and children's sleeping patterns were assessed with questionnaires. Parents' negativity and children's sleeping problems showed moderate continuity through the study's 9-month period. Children's sleeping problems at 9 months predicted an increase in mothers' (but not fathers') negativity at 18 months. Parents' negativity was not associated with infants' sleep problems. The results of this study suggest that already in infancy, children's tendencies, in this case sleep, can evoke negative emotions in their mothers and highlight infants' roles in the intricate parent-child relationship.

Proper sleep is important for children’s behavior, development, and optimal health.1,2 Environmental conditions, such as household size, socioeconomic status, noise, or brightness of the sleeping area could easily influence children’s sleep patterns.3,4 Children from low-income, as opposed to higher-income families tend to have shorter sleep duration, later bedtimes, and reduced opportunities for sleep.5-7 The ways in which household conditions in low-income families may be associated with children’s sleep are not well known. We recently reported that suboptimal sleep environments (sleeping in a place that is “too loud”, “too bright”, “too hot”, or “too cold”) were associated with shorter sleep durations and later times that low-income children fell asleep at night.8 However, it remains unknown whether sleep conditions and environments, such as room or bed sharing, sleeping on the floor, couch or chair, or media use in the bedroom among lowincome families may be related to children’s sleep quality beyond sleep durations and fallasleep times. Further understanding of the associations between sleep conditions in the home and sleep quality could contribute to the design of better interventions to improve children’s sleep quality and reduce existing sleep disparities.9 The aim of this study, therefore, was to test the hypothesis that home sleeping conditions are associated with poor sleep quality among low-income preschool children. Received: October 22, 2014 Revised: December 3, 2014 Accepted: December 16, 2014

Sleep quality among college students is affected by numerous factors. Previous studies have linked sleep quality to family dynamics as well as personality. However, little is known about the mechanisms underlying this relationship. The aim of this study is to incorporate a moderated mediation model to explore the big five personality traits in mediating the relationship between family dynamics and sleep quality and whether this indirect relationship is modified by only-child status among Chinese undergraduate students. Survey data were collected from a cross-sectional study conducted in Shandong, China and 1022 undergraduate students aged 18–24 were recruited. The mediation and moderated mediation modeling analyses were carried out with the software SPSS PROCESS macro. After controlling for gender and grade, mediation analysis indicated that conscientiousness and agreeableness of the big five personality traits partially mediated the link between family dynamics and sleep quality (β = −0.0093, CI: −0.0178, −0.0018; β = −0.0047, CI: −0.0084, −0.0013), and moderation analysis found only-child status acted as a moderator in the relationship between family dynamics and the agreeableness of the big five personality traits (only child, β = −0.0129, CI: −0.0196, −0.0072; non-only-child, β = −0.0040, CI: −0.0078, −0.0002). Results showed that family dynamics positively predicted sleep quality both directly and indirectly via the conscientiousness and agreeableness of big five personality traits. Only-child status moderated the indirect association between family dynamics and agreeableness of big five personality traits. The current study advanced our understanding of the mechanism underlying the connection between family dynamics and sleep quality and helped to develop intervention measures to improve sleep quality of college students.

AimThe aim of this study was to investigate the direct relationship of sleep schedule and sleep quality variables between healthy preschool children and their parents, focusing on the influence of the difference in bedtime between each other.MethodsForty-seven Japanese 5-year-old children and their primary parent were studied. The parents completed questionnaires including the Epworth Sleepiness Scale and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. The children wore an actigraph for one week.ResultsAlthough sleep patterns of children were generally independent of their parents, late sleep end time and bedtime of children were associated with parents' late sleep end time on weekends. For 87% of children and parents who shared a bedroom, sleep quality was negatively affected by a shorter difference in bedtimes between child and parent, but not by co-sleeping.ConclusionSleep behaviours of parents can influence those of their children. For parents and children who share a bedroom, the timing of bedtime rather than co-sleeping may be a key factor in modulating sleep patterns. Trying to get children asleep and subsequently falling asleep at a similar time may disturb parents' sleep quality, which may subsequently affect that of their children.