The Effects of Negative Emotionality in Toddlers, Mothers' Perceptions of Sleep Problems, and Co-Sleeping on Sleep Problems in Toddlers

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of negative emotionality in toddlers, mothers’ perceptions of sleep problems and co-sleeping on sleep problems in toddlers. The subjects of this study consisted of 203 mothers that were members of an internet community named ‘M cafe’ and who lived in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do Province. This study analyzed the maternal cognition of toddler sleep, the location of sleeping, and toddler sleep problems. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 25.0 software by descriptive statistics analysis, frequency analysis, and multiple regression analysis. The main finding of this study was that the maternal cognition of young children’s sleep had the largest effect on toddler sleep problems. Young children’s negative emotionality had the second largest effect on toddler sleep problems. Lastly, co-sleeping was also related to toddler sleep problems. These results imply that children’s negative emotionality, co-sleeping, and mothers’ perceptions of infant sleep affect toddler sleep problems. These results can be used as baseline data to reduce infant sleep problems and the study may have implications for presenting maternal cognition and co-sleeping as variables that were not used in previous research.