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Child psychiatry and human development
12, 2022;53 (6): 1340-1348.

Parental Overprotection and Sleep Problems in Young Children.

Alex Pizzo, Andrea Sandstrom, Vladislav Drobinin, Lukas Propper, Rudolf Uher, Barbara Pavlova
Author Information
  1. Alex Pizzo: Department of Psychiatry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada.
  2. Andrea Sandstrom: Department of Psychiatry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada.
  3. Vladislav Drobinin: Department of Psychiatry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada.
  4. Lukas Propper: Department of Psychiatry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada.
  5. Rudolf Uher: Department of Psychiatry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada.
  6. Barbara Pavlova: Department of Psychiatry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada. barbara.pavlova@dal.ca. ORCID
PMID: 34191190 DOI: 10.1007/s10578-021-01199-2

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.

Keywords

Anxiety Children Overprotection Parenting Sleep

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MeSH Term

Child
Child, Preschool
Fathers
Humans
Male
Parenting
Parents
Sleep
Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders
Sleep Wake Disorders
Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Article has an altmetric score of 5

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