Sleep, neurobehavioral functioning, and behavior problems in school-age children

The aim of this study was to examine the associations between sleep and neurobehavioral functioning (NBF) in school-age children. These variables were assessed for 135 unreferred, healthy school children (69 boys and 66 girls), from second-, fourth-, and sixth-grade classes. Objective assessment methods were used on the participants in their regular home settings. Sleep was monitored using actigraphy for 5 consecutive nights; and NBF was assessed using a computerized neurobehavioral evaluation system, administered twice, at different times of the day. Significant correlations between sleep-quality measures and NBF measures were found, particularly in the younger age group. Children with fragmented sleep were characterized by lower performance on NBF measures, particularly those associated with more complex tasks such as a continuous performance test and a symbol-digit substitution test. These children also had higher rates of behavior problems as reported by their parents on the Child Behavior Checklist. These results highlight the association between sleep quality, NBF, and behavior regulation in child development; and raise important questions about the origins of these associations and their developmental and clinical significance.     

Within‐Family Relations in Objective Sleep Duration,Quality, and Schedule

The current study examined within‐family relations between mothers’, fathers’, and children's objectively assessed sleep. Participants were 163 children (M_age = 10.45 years; SD = 0.62) and their parents. For 7 nights, families wore actigraphs to assess sleep duration (minutes), quality (efficiency, long wake episode, total wake minutes), and schedule (wake time). A sleep log assessed bedtime. Multilevel models indicated that children's sleep minutes, sleep efficiency, wake minutes, and wake time were associated with fluctuations in their mothers’, but not fathers’, sleep that same night. The duration and quality of mothers’ sleep was associated with both fathers’ and children's sleep that night, whereas fathers’ sleep was positively associated with only mothers’ sleep. Findings highlight the importance of examining sleep within a family context.     

Remembering and understanding: the effects of changes in underlying knowledge on children's recollections

This study was designed to explore the influence of changes in children's knowledge on earlier constructed memories. Kindergartners' (N = 102) recall of a series of stories was examined as a function of their interpersonal knowledge about the main story character. Children's knowledge about the protagonist was manipulated prior to presentation of the stories, and the effects of their impressions on story recall were examined. A change in some of the children's impressions was then promoted, and the impact of this second knowledge manipulation on recall of previously heard stories was assessed. The results indicated that children's story recall was affected by their prior impressions. Moreover, following the second knowledge manipulation, children revised their story reports in ways that were consistent with their newly acquired impressions, which suggests that they had reconstructed their memories of previously heard stories. These findings provide evidence for both prospective and retrospective effects of knowledge on memory.     

Concurrent and Longitudinal Relations Between Children's Sleep and Cognitive Functioning: The Moderating Role of Parent Education

Relations between children's sleep and cognitive functioning were examined over 2 years, and race and socioeconomic status were assessed as moderators of effects. Third-grade African American and European American children ( N  =   166; M  =   8.72 years) participated at Time 1 and again 2 years later ( N  =   132). At both Time 1 and Time 2, sleep was examined via self-report and actigraphy. Children were administered selected tests from the Woodcock–Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Abilities, and Stanford Achievement Test scores were obtained from schools. Children's sleep was related to intellectual ability and academic achievement. Results build substantially on an emerging literature supportive of the importance of sleep in children.     

Visual Attention to and Comprehension of Television in Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disordered and Normal Boys

This study examined the effects of distracters on the television viewing of diagnosed ADHD (n = 19) and normal (n = 20) boys who ranged in age from 6 to 12 years. Subjects were videotaped watching four 7-min segments of "3-2-1 Contact," once in the presence and once in the absence of highly appealing toys. The results indicated that, while in the presence of toys, ADHD boys spent one-half as much time as control boys attending to the television. However, when toys were absent, there were no significant differences in visual attention between ADHD and normal boys. The effect of the toy manipulation was most dramatic with younger children of both groups. Recall of didactic content by ADHD boys and normal subjects did not differ significantly, even when the attention of ADHD boys was reduced. These findings suggest that ADHD children, like their normal counterparts, are active and strategic viewers of television.     

Evening activities as a potential confound in research on the adrenocortical system in children

The relation among children's evening activities, behavioral characteristics, and activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis was assessed in normally developing children ages 7 to 10 years. Salivary cortisol at bedtime was compared on evenings when children had structured activities outside of the home with unstructured evenings at home in relation to parental reports of children's behavioral characteristics. Participating in evening activities, particularly sport activities, was associated with small increases in bedtime cortisol levels in boys but not in girls. Differences in cortisol on activity versus no-activity nights were negatively related to children's social isolation. These results show that in studies with children, nights on which participants engage in sport activities should be avoided when collecting ambulatory measures of salivary cortisol concentrations.     

Relations between physiological and cognitive regulatory systems: infant sleep regulation and subsequent executive functioning

The aim of this report was to investigate the prospective links between infant sleep regulation and subsequent executive functioning (EF). The authors assessed sleep regulation through a parent sleep diary when children were 12 and 18 months old (N = 60). Child EF was assessed at 18 and 26 months of age. Higher proportions of total sleep occurring at night time, at both 12 and 18 months, were related to better performance on executive tasks, especially those involving a strong impulse control component. Most relations held above family socioeconomic status, prior mental development and concurrent verbal ability. These findings add to previous results with school-age children in suggesting that sleep favors the development of higher order cognitive functions requiring prefrontal cortex involvement.     

A twin-study of sleep difficulties in school-aged children

This study examines frequency, overlap, and genetic and environmental influences on sleep difficulties, which are understudied in school-aged children. The Sleep Self Report and the Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire were completed by 300 twin pairs (aged 8 years) and their parents. Child report suggested more frequent sleep problems than parent report (e.g., regular sleep onset delay was reported by 45% of children and 17% of parents). Associations between most of the sleep difficulties were small but significant (e.g., r(s)=.16 for parent report of bedtime resistance and sleep onset delay). Twin correlations based on parent reports suggest greater genetic influence (M=50%) than those based on child self-report (M=18%). Possible rater effects should be considered when evaluating children's sleep problems.     

The effect of teacher intervention on object manipulation in young children

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of limited oral and physical teacher intervention on object manipulation by preschool and early elementary children. The population consisting of 70 children, three, four, five, and six years old from two preschools and two kindergarten classes were randomly assigned to control and experimental groups. Children were observed as they manipulated magnets in classroom settings. Experimental students had the objects placed in their hands and were orally invited to explore. Results showed that there were significant differences between the groups in total time spent with the objects, number of activities performed, and cognitive level of operation. No significant differences were found in the number of contacts or in the interactive effects of treatment and testing day. The findings suggest that teacher roles may have an effect on student exploration and quality of interaction with unfamiliar objects.     

Children's achievement moderates the effects of mothers' use of control and autonomy support

Two studies investigated the effects of parents' control and autonomy support on low- and high-achieving children. In Study 1, mothers' (N=110) involvement with children (7 to 10 years old) in the context of a challenging task was observed. During this interaction, mothers' control predicted diminished engagement and their autonomy support predicted enhanced performance for low-achieving children more than for high-achieving children. In Study 2, mothers' (N=121) responses to children's (9 to 12 years old) failure were assessed with a daily checklist. Children's grades were obtained at this time and 6 months later. Mothers' controlling responses predicted decreased performance and their autonomy-supportive responses predicted increased performance over time for low achievers more than for high achievers.     

Free-Time Activities in Middle Childhood: Links with Adjustment in Early Adolescence

This study assessed links between free-time activities in middle childhood (hobbies, sports, toys and games, outdoor play, reading, television viewing, and hanging out) and school grades, conduct, and depression symptoms both concurrently and 2 years later, in early adolescence. It also explored two mechanisms that might underlie activity-adjustment links: whether the social contexts of children's activities mediate these links, child effects explain these connections, or both. Participants were 198 children (M = 10.9 years, SD = .54 years) in Year 1, and their parents. In home interviews in Years 1 and 3 of the study, mothers rated children's conduct problems, children reported on their depression symptoms, and information was collected on school grades from report cards. In seven evening phone interviews, children reported on the time they spent in free-time activities during the day of the call and their companions in each activity. Links were found between the nature of children's free-time activities and their adjustment. The social contexts of free-time activities explained activity-adjustment links to a limited degree; with respect to child effects, evidence also suggested that better adjusted children became more involved in adaptive activities over time.     

Emotional Climate and Behavioral Management during Sleep Time in Early Childhood Education Settings

The majority of children cease napping between 3 and 5 years of age yet, internationally, the allocation of a sleep time during the day for children of this age remains a practice in many early childhood education (ECE) settings. These dual circumstances present a disjuncture between children's sleep needs and center practices, that may cause conflict for staff, increase stress for children and escalate negative emotional climate in the room. Testing this hypothesis requires observation of both the emotional climate and behavioral management used in ECE rooms that extends into the sleep time. This study was the first to apply the Classroom Assessment and Scoring System (CLASS) Pre-K (Pianta, La Paro, & Hamre, 2008) to observe the emotional climate and behavioral management during sleep time. Pilot results indicated that the CLASS Pre-K functioned reliably to measure emotional climate and behavioral management in sleep time. However, new sleep-specific examples of the dimensions used were developed, to help orient fieldworkers to the CLASS Pre-K rating system in the sleep time context. The CLASS was then used to assess emotional climate and behavior management between the non-sleep and sleep time sessions, in 113 ECE rooms in Queensland, Australia. In these rooms 2.114 children were observed. Of these children, 71% did not sleep at any point during the allotted sleep times. There was a significant drop in emotional climate and behavioral management between the non-sleep and sleep-time sessions. Furthermore, the duration of mandated sleep time (a period of time where no activities are provided to non-sleeping children) accounted for significant independent variance in the observed emotional climate during sleep-time. The CLASS Pre-K presents a valuable tool to assess the emotional climate and behavior management during sleep-time and draws attention to the need for further studies of sleep time in ECE settings.     

Can social and emotional learning improve children’s academic progress? Findings from a randomised controlled trial of the Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) curriculum

Despite the significant evidence base demonstrating the positive impact of the Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) curriculum on children’s social-emotional and mental health outcomes, there has been very little research on its efficacy in improving academic attainment. More generally, the relationship between implementation variability and PATHS intervention outcomes has been underexplored. A cluster-randomised controlled trial with two arms: intervention (PATHS – 23 schools) and control (usual practice – 22 schools) was implemented to assess the impact of PATHS on English and Mathematics for children in years 5 (aged 9–10 years, n = 1705 pupils) and 6 (aged 10–11 years, n = 1631 pupils) in English primary schools. Two-level hierarchical linear models (school, child) were used to assess both primary ‘intention-to-treat’ effects and secondary ‘subgroup’ effects (for children eligible for free school meals). Additionally, the moderating role of implementation variability was assessed in 31 year 5 (n = 712 pupils) and 32 year 6 (n = 732 pupils) classes across the 23 intervention schools, with fidelity, dosage, quality/responsiveness and reach data generated via classroom-level structured lesson observations. Intention-to-treat and subgroup analyses revealed no significant positive effect of PATHS on children’s academic attainment. Cluster analyses of observational data revealed four distinct implementation profiles, differentiated primarily by dosage levels. However, these profiles were not significantly associated with differential academic outcomes. In light of our findings and their likely generalisability, it is not possible to recommend PATHS as an effective intervention for improving the academic attainment of children in English primary schools.

Trial registration: ISRCTN85087674

     

Trauma characteristics and sleep impairment among trauma-exposed children

Trauma-related sleep difficulties are quite common and their functional and clinical importance are increasingly recognized. High rates of sleep problems have been documented among trauma-exposed adults, particularly those diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD); however, research with trauma-exposed children is relatively limited. Research specifically with child samples is critical due to the numerous developmental and functional implications that may result from sleep impairment. Characteristics of the traumatic event may play a key role in understanding sleep difficulties, yet, these associations are not well understood among trauma-exposed children. The current study therefore investigated whether aspects of the traumatic event (i.e., type, nature, chronicity, age of onset, removal from home, and complex trauma) were related to higher levels of sleep disturbances among 276 treatment-seeking children ages 6–18 years (M = 10.88, SD = 3.39; 63.4% female; 62.7% Black). Sleep problems were common in this sample. Domestic and community violence exposure were associated with higher levels of select sleep difficulties, as were interpersonal trauma, chronic trauma, a trauma that began early in life, and complex trauma. Nonetheless, type of trauma and characteristics of the traumatic event were largely unrelated to sleep problems on either caregiver’s or children’s reports. Removal from the home was not linked with sleep impairment. Although findings signify the relevance of sleep disturbances among trauma-exposed children, trauma characteristics may have limited influence on sleep problems.     

Young Children''s Adaptations to Repeated Separations from Their Mothers

80 infants, toddlers, and preschoolers were observed before, during, and after separations from their mothers, who were attending conferences (M duration = 4 days). Half the sample was separated only once and the other half experienced 3 separations across a 6-month period. The study was designed: (a) to determine how separations affect children's behavior when there are no changes in the family constellation as there typically are during other separations, such as the birth of a new child, and (b) to determine the effects of repeated separations. Fewer changes in sleep and play behaviors suggested that this type of separation was less stressful than separations for the birth of another child. Nonetheless, the separations were still stressful, but principally for the single-separation group. In that group, changes were noted in both play and sleep behaviors. Following reunion, their sleep behaviors and more sophisticated play behaviors returned to baseline. However, activity level and the more insecure behaviors, such as wandering aimlessly, watching other children play, and interacting with their teachers, remained elevated following the mother's return. The multiple-separation group, in contrast, showed only 1 behavior change during their third separation, i.e., reduced interactions with their peers during the separation period, which returned to baseline following reunion. Repeated-measures analyses of the first and third separations of the multiple-separations group suggested that only the first separation was stressful. Thus, the infants and children in this study seemed to adapt to repeated separations.     

Social norms and self-presentation: children's implicit and explicit intergroup attitudes

Two studies examined whether social norms and children's concern for self-presentation affect their intergroup attitudes. Study 1 examined racial intergroup attitudes and normative beliefs among children aged 6 to 16 years (n=155). Accountability (i.e., public self-focus) was experimentally manipulated, and intergroup attitudes were assessed using explicit and implicit measures. Study 2 (n = 134) replicated Study 1, focusing on national intergroup attitudes. Both studies showed that children below 10 years old were externally motivated to inhibit their in-group bias under high public self-focus. Older children were internally motivated to suppress their bias as they showed implicit but not explicit bias. Study 1, in contrast to Study 2, showed that children with low norm internalization suppressed their out-group prejudice under high public self-focus.     

To Study or to Sleep? The Academic Costs of Extra Studying at the Expense of Sleep

This longitudinal study examined how nightly variations in adolescents’ study and sleep time are associated with academic problems on the following day. Participants (N = 535, 9th grade M_age = 14.88) completed daily diaries every day for 14 days in 9th, 10th, and 12th grades. Results suggest that regardless of how much a student generally studies each day, if that student sacrifices sleep time to study more than usual, he or she will have more trouble understanding material taught in class and be more likely to struggle on an assignment or test the following day. Because students are increasingly likely to sacrifice sleep time for studying in the latter years of high school, this negative dynamic becomes increasingly prevalent over time.     

Mind what mother says: narrative input and theory of mind in typical children and those on the autism spectrum

In 2 studies mothers read wordless storybooks to their preschool-aged children; narratives were analyzed for mental state language. Children's theory-of-mind understanding (ToM) was concurrently assessed. In Study 1, children's (N=30; M age 3 years 9 months) ToM task performance was significantly correlated with mothers' explanatory, causal, and contrastive talk about cognition, but not with mothers' simple mentions of cognition. In Study 2, the same pattern was found in an older sample of typically developing children (N=24; M age 4 years 7 months), whereas for children on the autism spectrum (N=24; M age 6 years 7.5 months), ToM task performance was uniquely correlated with mothers' explanatory, causal, and contrastive talk about emotions.     

The protective effects of religiosity on maladjustment among maltreated and nonmaltreated children

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the role of child religiosity in the development of maladaptation among maltreated children. METHODS: Data were collected on 188 maltreated and 196 nonmaltreated children from low-income families (ages 6-12 years). Children were assessed on religiosity and depressive symptoms, and were evaluated by camp counselors on internalizing symptomatology and externalizing symptomatology. RESULTS: Significant interactions indicated protective effects of religiosity. Child reports of the importance of faith were related to lower levels of internalizing symptomatology among maltreated girls (t=-2.81, p<.05). Child reports of attendance at religious services were associated with lower levels of externalizing symptomatology among nonmaltreated boys (t=1.94, p=.05). CONCLUSION: These results suggest that child religiosity may largely contribute to stress coping process among maltreated and nonmaltreated children from low-income families. The results also indicate that the protective roles of religiosity varied by risk status and gender. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The results indicate that a range of child religiosity behaviors and practices can be assessed in translational prevention research. It is recommended that healthcare professionals, psychologists, and social workers working with maltreated children and their families assess for salience of religiosity and may encourage them to consider the role religiosity plays in the development of prevention and intervention programs to alleviate distress and enhance stress coping.     

The ecology of family day care

The study examined the interrelationships of multiple levels of the family day care system (family, child care, and children) in order to portray the ecology of family day care in a small midwestern city and surrounding rural areas. Fifty-seven children, their mothers, and caregivers (n = 30) participated. Caregiver characteristics, conditions of caregiving, and quality of care in the family day care homes were assessed. Family background information (SES, education, stress, social support, and childrearing preferences) was obtained. Children's cognitive, language, and social development were assessed using static and process measures of each domain. Results revealed that families did not choose caregivers who resembled themselves with respect to SES, childrearing preferences, and stress, nor did they select child care whose quality varied systematically with their characteristics. Family and child care characteristics appeared to have additive effects on children's development.