A Longitudinal Study of the Effect of Co-Sleeping and Caregiver Factors on Sleep Ecology and Physical Stress Reactivity in Early Childhood

Sleep problems in infancy have been reported as one of the most prevalent health concerns presented to pediatricians. Studies have shown that co-sleeping, sleeping patterns, and caregiver factors might be the major causes of sleep problems in young children. Besides, parents may request significant others or professionals at baby care center to take care their children while they were too busy at work. Multiple caregivers may increase bedtime physical stress responses of the children; however, this association is rarely tested. Since the sleeping pattern in early childhood would change based on maturity, co-sleeping and multiple bedtime caregivers may affect their sleep development across time. To investigate the effect of co-sleeping and caregiver factors on children’s sleep ecology and physical stress reactivity will help to understand the complex origins of sleep problems in young children. Therefore, this study is aimed to examine the effect of different co-sleeping types (bed-sharing, room-sharing, and mixed-mode) and caregiver factors on sleep ecology and physical stress reactivity (salivary cortisol levels) of children from 0-3 years. Eligible mother-infant pairs will be recruited from a medical center located in the Northern Taiwan. They will be match-paired by maternal age, gender, number of siblings, and family economic status after grouping them to one of the co-sleeping types. Data collection will be performed at their age 1 month, 6-month, and then yearly for 3 years (5 follow-ups). Main measures contain sleep records from the bedtime caregivers and the child, caregiver factors, and physical stress reactivity at bedtime of the child. Descriptive analysis, mixed-model analysis, odds ratios, and regressions will be used to analyze the data based on the study aims.

Project ID:PC10207-1376
External Project ID:NSC102-2320-B182-010