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This study examined the reciprocal associations between sleep (duration and quality) and aggressive behavior in toddlers. The sample consisted of 82 children (43 boys and 39 girls) and their parents who completed two assessments, when children were 2 and 3 years old. At both time points, children wore an actigraph for 3 consecutive days to assess their sleep patterns, and both their parents reported on their child's aggressive behavior. The results indicated negative associations between sleep quality at age 2 and both parents' evaluations of aggressive behavior at age 3; in contrast, the relations between aggression at age 2 and sleep (duration or quality) at age 3 were small and nonsignificant. In line with studies of older children and adolescents, these results suggest that sleep difficulties are more likely to favor the emergence of aggressive behavior among young children than the converse.

While maternal influences on young children's sleep are increasingly documented, the study of paternal contributions to this important sphere of child functioning is only just beginning. In addition, much of this emerging research has focused on infancy only or has relied on parental reports of child sleep. The current study aimed to examine the associations between paternal involvement and child sleep during toddlerhood, a period that witnesses both increased paternal involvement in child care and marked developments in child sleep. Fathers (N = 85) reported on their involvement when their toddlers were aged 2 years, and sleep was assessed objectively with actigraphy at age 3. Results indicated that above and beyond several key covariates, fathers who reported engaging more frequently in emotional support with their 2-year-old child, and those who reported evoking the child more often, had children who slept longer at night 1 year later. These results are among the first to suggest potential paternal influences on children's sleep after the infancy period. They raise the possibility that interventions seeking to enhance paternal involvement may carry benefits for toddlers' sleep and consequently, for aspects of cognition, behavior, and emotion that depend on adequate sleep regulation.

The aim of this study was to investigate the prospective relations between parental psychosocial functioning and toddlers' sleep consolidation. Investigators met with 85 families 3 times, when children were 15 months (Time 1 [T1]), 18 months (T2), and 2 years of age (T3). Mothers and fathers completed questionnaires pertaining to their parenting stress, marital satisfaction, and perceived social support at T1 or T2, and mothers completed child sleep diaries at T2 and T3. Results indicated that fathers' parenting stress and marital satisfaction, as well as mothers' perceived social support, were related in expected directions to children's subsequent sleep consolidation (T3), with or without controlling for prior sleep consolidation (T2). In addition, all these relations were moderated by family socioeconomic status (SES), such that links were stronger in lower SES homes.

The aim of this study was to investigate the concurrent and longitudinal relations between sleep and externalizing symptoms among young children. Sixty-four families (mostly Caucasian; 36 boys) were met twice, when children were 2 (T1) and 4 years of age (T2). At T1, children wore an actigraph monitor for a 72-hr period, and both mothers and fathers completed the Child Behavior Checklist. At T2, both parents as well as the daycare educator filled the Child Behavior Checklist. At T1, longer sleep duration and higher sleep efficiency were associated with fewer externalizing symptoms as assessed by mothers. Results also indicated that higher sleep efficiency at T1 was related to fewer parent-reported externalizing symptoms at T2 (while controlling for prior externalizing symptoms). Relations between sleep efficiency at T1 and externalizing symptoms as assessed by mothers at T1 and by fathers at T2 were moderated by child sex, such that links were significant among boys only. Results pertaining to educators' reports were inconclusive. The current study highlights the importance of rapidly treating sleep difficulties, which are associated with persistent behavioral maladjustment, perhaps especially for boys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study examined associations among actigraphy, maternal sleep diaries, and the parent-completed child behavior checklist (CBCL) sleep items. These items are often used as a sleep measure despite their unclear validity with young children. Eighty middle class families (39 girls) drawn from a community sample participated. Children (M = 25.34 months, SD= 1.04) wore an actigraph monitor (Mini-Mitter® Actiwatch Actigraph, Respironics) for a 72-h period, and mothers completed a sleep diary during the same period. Eighty-nine percent of the mothers and 75% of the fathers also filled out the CBCL (1.5--5). Mother and father CBCL scores were highly correlated. Overall, good correspondencewas found between the CBCL filled out by mothers and sleep efficiency and duration derived from maternal sleep diaries (r between [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]