Maternal Anxiety, Sleep, and Parenting in Postpartum African American Mothers Restricted; Files Only

Abstract

      A well-established body of literature suggests that positive maternal parenting behaviors in early infancy are paramount, given their ability to impact later child development. Notably, these parenting behaviors have been shown to be negatively impacted by the presence of both heightened maternal anxiety and poor maternal sleep quality. Each of these maternal-based predictors are of particular concern during the postpartum period, the 12-months that elapse after the birth of an infant. However, to our knowledge, no study has examined the relationships between each of these factors – maternal anxiety, sleep, and parenting behaviors – across the postpartum period. Further, there is a paucity of quantitative work on postpartum sleep quality in African American women, which is of clinical relevance as these women tend to experience relatively poor sleep quality. As such, the current study examined relationships between each of these factors at three study timepoints – 3-, 6-, and 12-months postpartum – in an entirely African American sample. Hierarchical Linear Modeling was used to first explore the trajectories of study variables across the postpartum period. Results indicated that maternal demonstrations of positive parenting behaviors decrease from 3- to 12-months postpartum, whereas other study variables remained stable across these timepoints. Neither maternal anxiety nor maternal sleep quality predicted demonstrations of positive or negative parenting behaviors either cross-sectionally or longitudinally. However, maternal anxiety and maternal sleep showed both cross-sectional and time-lagged associations with one another. Specifically, maternal anxiety symptomatology drove maternal sleep quality across study timepoints. Findings suggest that in this group of African American women, additional factors (e.g., infant negativity, infants’ own sleep) may be more predictive of maternal parenting behaviors than maternal anxiety or sleep. Future work is warranted to explore the relevance of maternal anxiety and sleep to parenting later in development. Nonetheless, study findings offer quantitative support for linkages between psychological functioning and sleep in a community sample of postpartum African American women. 

Table of Contents

I.     Introduction

II.   Methods

III. Results

IV. Discussion

V.  References

VI. Figures

VII. Tables

List of Figures

Figure 1. Results from time-lagged analyses for Maternal Anxiety and Subjective Sleep Quality

Figure 2. Results from time-lagged analyses for Maternal Anxiety and Daytime Dysfunction

Figure 3. Results from time-lagged analyses for Maternal Anxiety and Total Sleep Quality

List of Tables

Table 1. Sample Demographics

Table 2. Maternal Anxiety (STAI-S) and Depression (EPDS) Symptomatology

Table 3. Maternal Sleep (PSQI) Characteristics

Table 4. Parenting Behaviors and Infant Negativity

Table 5. Bivariate Correlations Between Outcome Variables at 3-Months Postpartum

Table 6. Bivariate Correlations Between Outcome Variables at 6-Months Postpartum

Table 7. Bivariate Correlations Between Outcome Variables at 12-Months Postpartum

Table 8. Multivariate Linear Regressions testing associations between indices of maternal sleep at 6-months and positive parenting behaviors at 12-months

Table 9. Multivariate Linear Regressions testing associations between indices of maternal sleep at 6-months and negative parenting behaviors at 12-months

About this Master's Thesis

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School	Laney Graduate School
Department	Psychology
Subfield / Discipline	Clinical Psychology
Degree	M.A.
Submission	Master's Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Psychology, Developmental Psychology, General Psychology, Clinical
Keyword	Maternal anxiety Postpartum period Subjective sleep Parenting behaviors
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Patricia Brennan, Ph.D., Emory University
Committee Members	Robyn Fivush, Ph.D., Emory University Sherryl Goodman, Ph.D., Emory University

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