Abstract
We evaluated the sleep environment factors that influence children’s sleep, and the relationship between co-sleeping and parenting stress and parents’ mental health. A survey was conducted in 115 parents of preschool children and a total of 60 questionnaires completed for children aged 12–84 months were analyzed. The mother’s mental health was evaluated using the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), the Korean-Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (K-PSI-SF), and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). The children’s sleeping environment and quality were assessed using the Child Sleep Habit Questionnaire (CSHQ) and a sleep environment survey. Children were 28 males and 32 females, with a mean age of 48 ± 20 months. The high score of K-PSI-SF was significantly correlated with the frequency of a child sharing a bed with other children, and Difficult Child subcategory was correlated with the frequency of a child sharing a room with other children or sleeping in a too bright place. The high CSHQ score was correlated with the high K-PSI-SF score, mother’s young age and high PHQ-9 score. In the path analysis, sleeping in the same space with parents can induce sleep problems in the child, resulting in the mother perceiving the child’s behavior as difficult. Also, the mother perceiving her child as difficult was found to correlate with the mother’s insomnia. Our study suggests that sleeping problems occur more often in preschool children co-sleeping with parents than in children sleeping alone. The mother’s parenting stress is likely to be related to the children’s sleeping problems and their sleep environment.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Dahl RE. The impact of inadequate sleep on children’s daytime cognitive function. Semin Pediatr Neurol. 1996;3:44–50.
Paavonen EJ, Raikkonen K, Pesonen AK, Lahti J, Komsi N, Heinonen K, Jarvenpaa AL, Strandberg T, Kajantie E, Porkka-Heiskanen T. Sleep quality and cognitive performance in 8-year-old children. Sleep Med. 2010;11:386–92.
Paavonen EJ, Porkka-Heiskanen T, Lahikainen AR. Sleep quality, duration and behavioral symptoms among 5-6-year-old children. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2009;18:747–54.
Wong MM, Brower KJ, Zucker RA. Childhood sleep problems, early onset of substance use and behavioral problems in adolescence. Sleep Med. 2009;10:787–96.
Touchette E, Petit D, Seguin JR, Boivin M, Tremblay RE, Montplaisir JY. Associations between sleep duration patterns and behavioral/cognitive functioning at school entry. Sleep. 2007;30:1213–9.
Anders TF, Eiben LA. Pediatric sleep disorders: a review of the past 10 years. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 1997;36:9–20.
Mindell JA, Sadeh A, Kwon R, Goh DY. Cross-cultural differences in the sleep of preschool children. Sleep Med. 2013;14:1283–9.
Yang CK, Hahn HM. Cosleeping in young Korean children. J Dev Behav Pediatr. 2002;23:151–7.
Liu X, Liu L, Wang R. Bed sharing, sleep habits, and sleep problems among Chinese school-aged children. Sleep. 2003;26:839–44.
Willinger M, Ko CW, Hoffman HJ, Kessler RC, Corwin MJ, National Infant Sleep Position s. Trends in infant bed sharing in the United States, 1993–2000: the national infant sleep position study. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2003;157:43–9.
Chung S, Wilson KE, Miller AL, Johnson D, Lumeng JC, Chervin RD. Home sleeping conditions and sleep quality in low-income preschool children. Sleep Med Res. 2014;5:29–32.
Baddock SA, Galland BC, Taylor BJ, Bolton DP. Sleep arrangements and behavior of bed-sharing families in the home setting. Pediatrics. 2007;119:e200–7.
Park JH, Chung S, Kim HW. The relationship of the parenting stress with child’s characteristics in preschool children. J Korean Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2011;22:236–45.
Lam P, Hiscock H, Wake M. Outcomes of infant sleep problems: a longitudinal study of sleep, behavior, and maternal well-being. Pediatrics. 2003;111:e203–7.
Shang CY, Gau SS, Soong WT. Association between childhood sleep problems and perinatal factors, parental mental distress and behavioral problems. J Sleep Res. 2006;15:63–73.
Warren SL, Howe G, Simmens SJ, Dahl RE. Maternal depressive symptoms and child sleep: models of mutual influence over time. Dev Psychopathol. 2006;18:1–16.
Owens JA, Spirito A, McGuinn M. The children’s sleep habits questionnaire (CSHQ): psychometric properties of a survey instrument for school-aged children. Sleep. 2000;23:1043–51.
Wilson KE, Miller AL, Lumeng JC, Chervin RD. Sleep environments and sleep durations in a sample of low-income preschool children. J Clin Sleep Med. 2014;10:299–305.
Mindell JA, Owens JA. A clinical guide to pediatric sleep: diagnosis and management of sleep problems. Philadelphia: Lippincotte Williams & Wilkins; 2003.
Morin CM, Barlow DH. Insomnia: psychological assessment and management. New York: Guilford Press; 1993.
Cho YW. Sleep scale and sleep hygiene. J Korean Sleep Res Soc. 2004;1:12–23.
Abidin RR. Parenting stress index-short form. Charlottesville: Pediatric Psychology Press; 1990.
Lee KS, Chung KM, Park JA. J. KH. Reliability and validity study for the Korean version of Parenting Stress Index short form (K-PSI-SF). Kor J Woman Psychol. 2008;13:363–77.
Spitzer RL, Kroenke K, Williams JB. Validation and utility of a self-report version of PRIME-MD: the PHQ primary care study. primary care evaluation of mental disorders. patient health questionnaire. JAMA. 1999;282:1737–44.
Park SJ, Choi HR, Choi JH, Kim KW, Hong JP. Reliability and validity of the korean version of the patient health questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). Anxiety Mood. 2010;6:119–24.
Hodge D, Hoffman CD, Sweeney DP, Riggs ML. Relationship between children’s sleep and mental health in mothers of children with and without autism. J Autism Dev Disord. 2013;43:956–63.
Madansky D, Edelbrock C. Cosleeping in a community sample of 2- and 3-year-old children. Pediatrics. 1990;86:197–203.
Spruyt K, O’Brien LM, Cluydts R, Verleye GB, Ferri R. Odds, prevalence and predictors of sleep problems in school-age normal children. J Sleep Res. 2005;14:163–76.
Chung S, An H. Cultural issues of co-sleeping in Korea. Sleep Med Res. 2014;5:37–42.
Sung HY. The influence of culture on parenting practices of east asian families and emotional intelligence of older adolescents a qualitative study. Sch Psychol Int. 2010;31:199–214.
Ostberg M, Hagekull B. A structural modeling approach to the understanding of parenting stress. J Clin Child Psychol. 2000;29:615–25.
Lovejoy MC, Graczyk PA, O’Hare E, Neuman G. Maternal depression and parenting behavior: a meta-analytic review. Clin Psychol Rev. 2000;20:561–92.
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by a grant (#15-C33) from the Seoul Medical Center Research Institute.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
SC, JHH, and DSM conceptualized and designed the study. SL, CK, and SY collected the data. SL performed statistical analysis and wrote the manuscript. All authors reviewed the manuscript and approved the final version.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
No conflicts of interests declared.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lee, S., Ha, JH., Moon, DS. et al. Effect of sleep environment of preschool children on children’s sleep problems and mothers’ mental health. Sleep Biol. Rhythms 17, 277–285 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41105-019-00209-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41105-019-00209-0