Parental behaviors and sleep outcomes in infants and toddlers: a cross-cultural comparison.
BACKGROUND
To assess the prevalence of parental behaviors and other factors of sleep ecology and to analyze their relationships with sleep outcomes in a large sample of children ages birth to 36months in multiple countries/regions.


METHODS
Parents of 29,287 infants and toddlers (48% boys; Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States, and Vietnam) completed an internet-based expanded version of the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire.


RESULTS
Overall, there is a high level of parental involvement in sleep onset and sleep maintenance for young children, with significant differences in parenting behaviors across cultural groups. For predominantly-Caucasian, the most common behavior occurring at bedtime is falling asleep independently in own crib/bed (57%), compared to just 4% of those children living in predominantly-Asian regions. Parental behaviors and sleep ecology, including parental presence at sleep onset, bedtime, and bedtime routine, significantly explain a portion of the variance in sleep patterns. Overall, parental behaviors are more highly predictive of nighttime sleep outcomes in predominantly-Caucasian regions. Finally, parental involvement in sleep onset mediates the relationship between cosleeping and sleep outcomes.


CONCLUSIONS
Overall, the best predictors of nighttime sleep are related to parental behaviors at bedtime and during the night. Furthermore, sleep disruption and decreased total sleep associated with bed sharing and room sharing are mediated by parental presence at bedtime. These findings provide additional support for addressing parental behaviors in behavioral interventions for infant and toddler sleep problems.
Mindell
Jodi A
JA
Saint Joseph's University, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, United States. jmindell@sju.edu
Sadeh
Avi
A
Kohyama
Jun
J
How
Ti Hwei
TH
D002675:Child, Preschool; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*