The relationships between the family impact and distress of the coronavirus disease-19 pandemic, parent insomnia, infant temperamental negative affectivity, and parent-reported infant sleep: a path analysis.

Study objectives: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic impact on infant sleep (IS) is understudied. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between family impact and distress from COVID-19 pandemic stressors, parental insomnia symptoms, infant temperamental negative affectivity, and parent-reported IS.

Methods: Parents from the Phoenix metropolitan area with a full-term healthy infant (<1 year) were recruited from February 27, 2021, to August 7, 2021. A sample of 70 parents (baby age 5.5 ± 3.5 months; parental age: 31.7 ± 5.0 years) completed the COVID-19 Exposure and Family Impact Survey (CEFIS) Impact and Distress scales, the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), the Infant Behavioral Questionnaire-Revised Negative Affectivity subscale (IBQ-R-NA), and the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire-Revised (BISQ-R). Based on the transactional model of IS, path analyses were conducted to identify the direct effect of CEFIS scores and the indirect effects of parental ISI and infant IBQ-R-NA scores on BISQ-R scores.

Results: The parent sample was predominantly female (94.3%), white (72.9%), and married or in a domestic partnership (98.6%). Although COVID-19 pandemic impact and distress were not directly related to parent-reported IS, pandemic distress was negatively related to parent-reported IS indirectly through infant negative affectivity, including BISQ-R total score (β = -0.14, 95% CI [-0.32, -0.01]) and IS subscale score (β = -0.12, 95% CI [-0.27, -0.01]).

Conclusions: Heightened COVID-19 pandemic family distress was related to poorer parent-reported IS through greater parent-reported infant negative affectivity, suggesting the importance of addressing family stress and emotional regulation during crises.