0124 The Effects of Family Arguments on Parental Sleep Quality

Abstract Introduction Previous studies indicate that stress and trauma within family systems can affect the sleep quality of all family members. While most research on parent-child conflict and sleep has focused on child outcomes, this study aims to investigate the potential role of familial stress caused by arguments between families on the quality of parent’s sleep through the lens of Bowen’s Family Systems Theory. Methods Cross-sectional data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten (ECLS-K) 2011 cohort’s 5th grade parent surveys in 2016 were utilized to understand the feelings of parents and other guardians on how often they argue with their children, how often they felt restless during their sleep, and how often they feel depressed. To assess the effects of parent-child conflict on parent report of restless sleep, two survey-weighted logistic regression models were created, both adjusting for parent and child age and one also adjusting for parental depression, and average marginal effects were calculated. Results The analysis included 8,375 parents and guardians, with a mean age of 39.9 years (SE = 0.17), of whom 14.0% reported mostly or always arguing with their child, 15.0% usually experiencing restless sleep, and 3.9% that they feel depressed most or all of the time. The first regression model found that parents report of frequent parent-child conflict was associated with an 13.2% increase (95%CI 10.4 to 16.1) in the predicted probability of parent restless sleep, an effect which decreased in size but remained significant after adjusting for parental depression (to a 9.1% increase, 95%CI 6.5 to 11.6), which may be a partial mediator of this effect. Conclusion These results emphasize the significant impact of familial arguments on parental restlessness, emphasizing the critical role of family cohesion in shaping parent’s sleep quality. One important limitation is the temporality and causality of the relationship between familial arguments, depression, and restless sleep, which cannot be evaluated with these models and requires further research. Support (if any)