Poster Session 1, 10:30 AM - 11:15 AM: Room 163 [C16]

Relations Between Depressive Symptoms in Mothers and Toddler Sleep

Presenter: Cosima Trinity Calinescu

Faculty Sponsor: Rebecca Spencer

School: UMass Amherst

Research Area: Psychology and Behavioral Sciences

ABSTRACT

Mothers are at heightened risk of facing a detrimental bidirectional relationship between their mental health symptoms and overnight sleep, due to the hormonal shifts and lifestyle demands that are associated with pregnancy and motherhood. The bidirectional relationship existing between poor sleep and depressive symptoms in mothers could affect their bedtime interaction with their toddlers and impact their sleep as well as their toddler’s. This study's first aim will be to establish how maternal depressive symptoms impact both the mother’s and their toddler’s sleep. The second aim will be to see how the mother’s perturbed sleep can potentially disturb their toddler’s sleep. The third aim will assess how depressive symptoms in mothers might influence their bedtime interactions with their toddlers. The study assessed the sleep of 34 mothers and their toddlers, over 3 waves: 16, 21, 26 months old or 21, 26, 31 months old. I will present an analysis of one timepoint per mother-child dyad. Depressive symptoms in mothers were assessed using the Center of Epidemiological Studies Depression scale (CES-D) while mother-child bedtime interactions were assessed using the Parent Interactive Bedtime Behavior Scale (PIBBS). Mother’s and toddler’s sleep were objectively measured using 16 nights of actigraphy. Three sleep variables were extracted: average total nighttime sleep duration in minutes (and the standard deviation) and average total sleep duration across 24 hours. A high level of depressive symptoms in mothers is expected to correlate with perturbed sleep in both mothers and toddlers and with anxious bedtime interactions.

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