Maternal distress and infant sleep arrangements in the first year: The roles of cultural consonance and maternal preferences for sleep arrangement choices
Open Access
Author:
Shimizu, Mina
Graduate Program:
Human Development and Family Studies
Degree:
Master of Science
Document Type:
Master Thesis
Date of Defense:
December 06, 2013
Committee Members:
Douglas Michael Teti, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Keywords:
infant sleep arrangements maternal distress cultural consonance
Abstract:
The present longitudinal study examined the differences in levels of criticism and distress between mothers who did not adhere to American cultural prescriptions for infant sleep arrangements and those who followed it. The moderating influences of mothers’ preference for their choice of sleep arrangement were also examined. Longitudinal data, collected from 1 to 12 months of infant age, were obtained from 140 mother-infant dyads in a predominantly rural, Caucasian sample. The mothers who used the culturally dissonant (CD) sleep arrangements were more likely than those who used culturally consonant (CC) arrangements to feel criticized by others and to have higher levels of worry about infant sleep. The differences in the levels of criticism and maternal distress specific to infant sleep between these two groups were not moderated by mothers’ preference for the sleep arrangements they used. These findings demonstrate that controlling for the preference for sleep arrangement, cultural consonance in infant sleep arrangement is a powerful indicator in predicting maternal well-being.