Maternal Sleep Duration, Self-Efficacy Can Play a Role in Maternal Depression

Maternal sleep duration and self-efficacy are modifiable risk factors of maternal depression, signifying possible opportunities for treatment, according to the Journal of Sleep Research.

Parental self-efficacy might be a possible aim for clinical practice and further psychobiological study.

Depression, poor sleep duration and low self-efficacy are frequent in mothers of children with sleep problems, but research usually doesn’t continue past the postpartum period.

a woman is stressed at a computer

In this study, researchers examined the multifaceted relationship between child sleep and maternal depression in early in motherhood.

Stressors of raising children, such as those who experience sleep problems, might make mothers more vulnerable to depression symptoms in early motherhood. Poor sleep in children is also positively correlated with poor maternal sleep. So, the researchers examined a more complicated set of child and maternal variables, and their impact on maternal depression.

First, a confidential survey reviewed child sleep problems, maternal sleep duration, parental self-efficacy and symptoms of depression in 477 Australian mothers of children aged 3 months to 5 years.

No relationship was found between child age and maternal depression, supporting researchers’ decision to look beyond postpartum depression. Strong bootstrapped mediation modeling verified the hypothesis that maternal sleep duration and parental self-efficacy would lessen the impact of the relationship of child sleep problems on maternal depression.

Even though the total effect of child sleep problems on maternal depression was statistically significant, after remediating the effects of other variables, child sleep problems did not predict maternal depression. Akaike information criterion analyses backed the full model, with both mediators explaining meaningful variance in maternal depression.

Then, when researchers analyzed maternal depression by age of child, they saw a correlation of approximately 0 (95% CIs, –0.10 to 0.09), and a plot of the data showed an almost straight line. Therefore, there were no differences in maternal depression by age of child. This finding signified that studies on maternal depression might be extended to analyze more variables like self-efficacy, but also longer motherhood periods.

The total effect of child sleep problems on maternal depression was statistically significant, but the direct effect was not, indicating that the relationship between child sleep problems and maternal depression is complex and encompasses mediating phenomena.

“This study expands our knowledge beyond the postpartum period and divulges the disparate effects of sleep deprivation and parental self-efficacy on the relationship between child sleep and depression in early motherhood,” said the researchers.

Additionally, maternal sleep duration and self-efficacy accounted for the majority of the variance between child sleep problems and maternal depression self-efficacy especially showed evidence as a strong intervening factor.

These findings present clinical implications for early intervention and routine screening for sleep disturbances in mothers and their children as risk maternal depression risk factors.

Researchers recommended that interventions should focus on growing self-efficacy in parents of children with sleep problems, especially when maternal sleep duration is also low. Evidenced-based practices like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for maternal depression and CBT for insomnia might be revised to integrate the distinctive challenges of early motherhood and a focus on parental self-efficacy through cognitive therapy.

Some limitations were present in this study, such as no evidence of causation, where more evidence is needed. The current study also did not take detailed health or household information, measures of sleep quality, anxiety, mental health history, depression onset or duration, that might restrict generalizability.

“Our findings demonstrate that a simple approach to understanding the relationship between child sleep problems and maternal mental health could lead to inaccurate conclusions. A more complex model, including maternal sleep and self-efficacy, provided an improved understanding of this important human dilemma – caring for children with sleep problems without imperiling one's own mental health,” concluding the authors.

Reference

Carroll, AJ, Appleton J, Harris KM. Child sleep problems, maternal sleep and self-efficacy: sleep's complicated role in maternal depression. J Sleep Res. Published online July 4, 2023. doi:10.1111/jsr.14005