0165 The Relationships between Early Maternal Sleep and Mother-Infant Bonding, and Infant Bedtime Difficulty Later: A Path Analysis

Abstract Introduction Infant sleep is influenced by biopsychosocial factors. However, the influences of early parental sleep quality and parent-infant bonding on infant sleep development are underexplored. This study aimed to examine the relationships between early maternal sleep quality and mother-infant bonding at 8 weeks postpartum, and infant bedtime difficulty at 3 months postpartum. Methods This study is a secondary analysis from the Snuggle Bug/Acurrucadito Study, an observational, longitudinal cohort study investigating the associations between 24-hr sleep-wake patterns, gut microbiome, and weight development among infants. Mothers (n=60, 31.5±5.4y, 66.3% married, 40.8% Hispanic, 41.5% < bachelor’s degree) and their full-term (≥37wk), singleton infants without major complications were recruited from Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area. At 3 and 8 weeks, and 3 months of infant age, mothers completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI, range:0-21, higher scores indicate worse sleep quality), and reported on infant bedtime difficulty, using a 5-point Likert scale (range:1-5) with higher scores indicating greater bedtime difficulty. Mother-infant bonding was measured by the Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire (PBQ, range:0-125) at 8-week age, with higher scores indicating greater bonding problems. Based on the Transactional Model of Infant Sleep, path analyses were conducted to identify the direct effect of 8-week PSQI scores, and indirect effects of 8-week PBQ total scores and 8-week bedtime difficulty on 3-month bedtime difficulty, using z scores for all variables and the 3-week bedtime difficulty as a covariate. Results At 8 weeks postpartum, the means of PSQI, PBQ, and bedtime difficulty were 5.8±2.6, 5.3±4.7, and 2.4±1.0, respectively. Bedtime difficulty at 3 months was 2.0±1.0. After adjusting for the 3-week bedtime difficulty, the 8-week maternal sleep quality was not directly associated with 8-week (β=.005, 95%CI [-0.31, 0.32]) or 3-month infant bedtime difficulty (β=-0.14, 95%CI [-0.43, 0.14]), whereas 8-week mother-infant bonding significantly mediated the relationship between 8-week maternal sleep quality and 3-month infant bedtime difficulty (β=0.1, 95%CI [0.02, 0.22]). Conclusion This study highlighted that early maternal sleep may disrupt early mother-infant bonding, which, in turn, may increase infant bedtime difficulty later in development. Future research should investigate how best to support healthy family sleep and bonding relationships. Support (if any) NIH/NHLBI R01HL147931