The Relationship Between Sleep and Developmental Outcomes in Young Children

University Of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg MS

Investigators

Abstract

The proposed research project investigates the role of sleep in the behavioral and psychosocial development of preschool children. The preschool age was selected for study because: a) it is a time of explosive development in all areas important to normal functioning and b) it is during this time that children are learning to adjust their sleep habits to changing biological and social pressures. The primary objective of the proposed research is to show that a child's social, emotional, and cognitive functioning are related to the quantity and quality of his/her usual pattern of sleep. This relationship is expected to be strong for preschool children as both sleep problems and behavioral problems are common at this age. A representative sample of approximately 300 three- to five-year old children of varying SES and ethnic background will be selected for enrollment in the study from a tri-county area in Mississippi. Behavioral sleep quality and its determinant factors will be assessed using a newly constructed questionnaire/interview. This questionnaire will permit a more comprehensive assessment of the relationship between sleep and psychosocial functioning. In this way, the proposed research addresses limitations of existing research on sleep and daytime functioning in young children, which has been stalled by inadequate measurement tools. The investigators believe that this project will act as a building block for extended data collection in this sample to test the prediction that the level of a child's functioning during the early school years will be related to the overall amount and quality of his/her sleep during preschool years. This prediction is based on the proposition that sleep is a fundamentally important activity for developmental processes shaped by a child's level of alertness, emotional/behavioral stability, and attention capacity.