Sleep Moderates the Association Between Response Inhibition and Self-Regulation in Early Childhood

Publication Date

3-2017

Document Type

Article

Organizational Units

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Psychology

Keywords

Early childhood, Response inhibition, Self-regulation, Sleep, Developmental changes

Abstract

Early childhood is a time of rapid developmental changes in sleep, cognitive control processes, and the regulation of emotion and behavior. This experimental study examined sleep-dependent effects on response inhibition and self-regulation, as well as whether acute sleep restriction moderated the association between these processes. Preschool children (N = 19; 45.6 ± 2.2 months; 11 female) followed a strict sleep schedule for at least 3 days before each of 2 morning behavior assessments: baseline (habitual nap/night sleep) and sleep restriction (missed nap/delayed bedtime). Response inhibition was evaluated via a go/no-go task. Twelve self-regulation strategies were coded from videotapes of children while attempting an unsolvable puzzle. We then created composite variables representing adaptive and maladaptive self-regulation strategies. Although we found no sleep-dependent effects on response inhibition or self-regulation measures, linear mixed-effects regression showed that acute sleep restriction moderated the relationship between these processes. At baseline, children with better response inhibition were more likely to use adaptive self-regulation strategies (e.g., self-talk, alternate strategies), and those with poorer response inhibition showed increased use of maladaptive self-regulation strategies (e.g., perseveration, fidgeting); however, response inhibition was not related to self-regulation strategies following sleep restriction. Our results showing a sleep-dependent effect on the associations between response inhibition and self-regulation strategies indicate that adequate sleep facilitates synergy between processes supporting optimal social-emotional functioning in early childhood. Although replication studies are needed, findings suggest that sleep may alter connections between maturing emotional and cognitive systems, which have important implications for understanding risk for or resilience to developmental psychopathology.

Copyright Date

9-21-2016

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Rights Holder

Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology

Provenance

Received from CHORUS

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

15 pgs

File Size

561 KB

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology. User is responsible for all copyright compliance. This article was originally published as:

Schumacher, A. M., Miller, A. L., Watamura, S. E., Kurth, S., Lassonde, J. M., & LeBourgeois, M. K. (2017). Sleep moderates the association between response inhibition and self-regulation in early childhood. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 46(2), 222-235. https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2016.1204921

Accepted Manuscript is openly available through the "Link to Full Text" button.

The published Version of Record is available at libraries through Compass or Worldcat.

Publication Title

Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology

Volume

46

Issue

2

First Page

222

Last Page

235

ISSN

1537-4424

PubMed ID

27652491

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