The pandemic's toll on parents' sleep and the functioning of their family

What is it about?

Many sources of stress emerged as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, including job-related and health-related stress. One consequence of these stressors was their negative influence on parents' sleep quality. In fact, over the 8 consecutive weeks that we followed parents during the initial stages of the pandemic, drops in parental sleep quality on a specific week predicted corresponding increases in angry/hostile parenting, which predicted increases in children’s distress during that same week.

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Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash

Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash

Why is it important?

These results highlight the important role that parents’ sleep plays in both parenting and children’s functioning during periods of high stress. They also demonstrate the indirect ways that stressors related to the pandemic affected children's functioning.