Examining the Influence of Parenting Practices on Youth's Sleep Health During a Sensitive Developmental Period

Authors

Juliana Acosta LievanoFollow

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Major/Program

Psychology

First Advisor's Name

Dana L. McMakin

First Advisor's Committee Title

Co-Committee Chair

Second Advisor's Name

Justin Parent

Second Advisor's Committee Title

Committee member

Third Advisor's Name

Adela C. Timmons

Third Advisor's Committee Title

Committee member

Fourth Advisor's Name

Laura Dinehart

Fourth Advisor's Committee Title

Committee member

Keywords

Parenting, mental health, sleep health

Date of Defense

5-31-2022

Abstract

Sleep problems among youth are highly prevalent and associated with mental and physical health concerns. During early adolescence, youth’s sleep health is at risk for disturbance, and problems with sleep around this developmental period have been shown to longitudinally predict escalating rates of anxiety and depression later in adolescence. Sleep-related behaviors are embedded within the family system and as such they are influenced by familial processes including parenting practices. However, the influence of parenting practice on young adolescents’ sleep health has been understudied. Moreover, there is limited evidence on the concept of nighttime parenting as it relates to youth’s sleep health. Lastly, although parenting practices have been identified as contributors to youth’s sleep health, parents’ active involvement within sleep interventions has been limited.

This dissertation is comprised of three manuscripts focused on the association between nighttime and general/daytime parenting practices and youth’s sleep health. First, I provide evidence on distinct constellations of parenting practices that are differentially predictive of youth sleep problems, with findings on positive parenting practices longitudinally predicting better sleep health indices and negative parenting practices longitudinally predicting poorer sleep health indices. Then, I expand on this research by developing a measure that assesses parenting practices that occur within the nighttime hours, and thereby, provide a new framework for the impact of nighttime parenting practices on youth’s sleep health during early adolescence. Findings from the second study corroborate those from the first study as positive and negative nighttime parenting practices differentially related to youth’s sleep health above and beyond the impact of general/daytime parenting practices. Lastly, informed by the aforementioned studies, I conducted a clinical open trial of a family-based intervention for early adolescents with sleep problems, which intentionally targeted nighttime parenting practices. Findings revealed pre- to post-treatment improvements in youth sleep and mental health as well as favorable trends in parenting practices. This collection of work contributes to the conceptualization of the socioecological model of youth’s sleep health and highlights parenting practices as potential treatment targets that may be promising in addressing the pervasiveness and gravity of poor sleep health during the sensitive developmental stage of early adolescence.

Identifier

FIDC010720

ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5308-7697

Recommended Citation

Acosta Lievano, Juliana, "Examining the Influence of Parenting Practices on Youth's Sleep Health During a Sensitive Developmental Period" (2022). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 5078.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/5078