Parental Cognitions About Sleep Problems in Infants: A Systematic Review

Introduction: Parental cognitions may directly and indirectly contribute to infant sleep outcomes. This review provides a systematic up-to-date overview of the associations between parental cognitions and infant sleep problems with special emphasis on temporal relationships and the content of parental cognitions.Methods: A systematic literature research in PubMed and Web of Science Core Collection sensu Liberati and PRISMA guidelines was carried out in March 2020 using the search terms (parent* AND infant* AND sleep* problem*), including studies with correlational or control group designs investigating associations between parental cognitions and sleep problems in children aged 1–6 years.Results: Twenty-three studies (published from 1985 to 2016) met inclusion criteria, of which 14 reported group differences or associations between parental sleep-related cognitions and child sleep outcomes. Nine papers additionally reported on the role of general parental child-related cognitions not directly pertaining to sleep. Findings from longitudinal studies suggest that parental cognitions often preceded child sleep problems. Cognitions pertaining to difficulties with limit-setting were especially prevalent in parents of poor sleepers and were positively associated with both subjective and objective measures of child sleep outcomes.Conclusions: Parental cognitions appear to play a pivotal role for the development and maintenance of sleep problems in young children, arguing that parents' attitudes and beliefs regarding child sleep inadvertently prompts parental behavior toward adverse sleep in offspring. Associations are however based on maternal reports and small to moderate effect sizes. Thus, additional parental factors such as mental health or self-efficacy, as well as additional offspring factors including temperamental dispositions and regulatory abilities, require consideration in further studies.

Introduction

The introduction provides a brief overview of the book, describing its three major themes: (a) the mechanisms through which the brain regulates parental behavior in nonhuman mammals and parental cognitions, emotions, and behavior in humans; (b) the experiential and genetic factors that affect the development of the parental brain, with a focus on the intergenerational continuity of normal and abnormal parental behavior; and (c) an evolutionary perspective based on the fact that maternal behavior is the most basic mammalian caregiving system. It is proposed that the parental brain served as a foundation upon which natural selection acted to result in the evolution of other forms of strong prosocial behaviors in mammals, including humans.

Explaining use of food parenting practices: the importance of predisposing factors and parental cognitions

ObjectiveThe high energy intake from energy-dense foods among children in developed countries is undesirable. Improving food parenting practices has the potential to lower snack intakes among children. To inform the development of interventions, we aimed to predict food parenting practice patterns around snacking (i.e. ‘high covert control and rewarding’, ‘low covert control and non-rewarding’, ‘high involvement and supportive’ and ‘low involvement and indulgent’).DesignA cross-sectional survey was conducted. To predict the patterns of food parenting practices, multinomial logistic regression analyses were run with 888 parents. Predictors included predisposing factors (i.e. parents’ and children’s demographics and BMI, parents’ personality, general parenting, and parenting practices used by their own parents) and parents’ cognitions (i.e. perceived behaviour of other parents, subjective norms, attitudes, self-efficacy and outcome expectations).SettingThe Netherlands (October–November 2014).SubjectsDutch parents of children aged 4–12 years old.ResultsAfter backward elimination, nineteen factors had a statistically significant contribution to the model (Nagelkerke R2=0·63). Overall, self-efficacy and outcome expectations were among the strongest explanatory factors. Considering the predisposing factors only, the general parenting factor nurturance most strongly predicted the food parenting clusters. Nurturance particularly distinguished highly involved parents from parents employing a pattern of low involvement.ConclusionsParental cognitions and nurturance are important factors to explain the use of food parenting practices around snacking. The results suggest that intervention developers should attempt to increase self-efficacy and educate parents about what constitute effective and ineffective parenting practices. Promoting nurturance might be a prerequisite to achieve prolonged change.

The Relationship Between Challenging Behaviour, Cognitions and Stress in Mothers of Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities

Background: Cognitions are starting to receive more prominence as important when examining a number of factors including the topography of challenging behaviour. This study examined the relationships between maternal stress, challenging behaviour (aggressive and self-injurious behaviours) and parental cognitions and specifically whether maternal cognitions mediated the effect of challenging behaviour on parenting stress. Method: 46 mothers of children and young adults with ID completed questionnaires regarding their child's challenging behaviour, maternal cognitions and stress. Results: Significant correlations were found between challenging behaviour and maternal stress. The overall mediation models for aggression and self-injurious behaviour were significant. The Challenging Behaviour Perception Questionnaire: Consequences client subscale was the only independent significant mediator for both behaviours. Conclusions: Cognitions do play an important part in mediating the relationship between challenging behaviour and stress. Further research is needed to examine the similarities and differences between the mediation models for aggression and self-injurious behaviour.