Relations between bedtime parenting behaviors and temperament across 14 cultures

Christie Pham; Eric Desmarais; Victoria Jones; Brian F French; Zhengyan Wang; Samuel Putnam; Sara Casalin; Maria Beatriz Martins Linhares; Felipe Lecannelier; Soile Tuovinen; Kati Heinonen; Katri Raikkonen; Rosario Montirosso; Lorenzo Giusti; Seong-Yeon Park; Sae-Young Han; Eun Gyoung Lee; Blanca Huitron; Carolina de Weerth; Roseriet Beijers; Mirjana Majdandžić; Carmen Gonzalez-Salinas; Ibrahim Acar; Helena Slobodskaya; Elena Kozlova; Emine Ahmetoglu; Oana Benga; Maria A Gartstein

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1004082

Relations between bedtime parenting behaviors and temperament across 14 cultures

Front Psychol. 2022 Nov 24:13:1004082. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1004082. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Christie Pham¹, Eric Desmarais¹, Victoria Jones¹, Brian F French², Zhengyan Wang³, Samuel Putnam⁴, Sara Casalin⁵, Maria Beatriz Martins Linhares⁶, Felipe Lecannelier⁷, Soile Tuovinen^{8

9}, Kati Heinonen^{8

9}, Katri Raikkonen⁸, Rosario Montirosso¹⁰, Lorenzo Giusti¹⁰, Seong-Yeon Park¹¹, Sae-Young Han¹¹, Eun Gyoung Lee^{11

12}, Blanca Huitron¹³, Carolina de Weerth¹⁴, Roseriet Beijers^{14

15}, Mirjana Majdandžić¹⁶, Carmen Gonzalez-Salinas¹⁷, Ibrahim Acar¹⁸, Helena Slobodskaya¹⁹, Elena Kozlova¹⁹, Emine Ahmetoglu²⁰, Oana Benga²¹, Maria A Gartstein¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, United States.
² College of Education, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, United States.
³ College of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China.
⁴ Bowdoin College, Brunswick, GA, United States.
⁵ Department of Psychology, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
⁶ Department of Neurosciences and Behavior, University São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
⁷ Faculty of Medical Sciences, Universidad de Santiago, Santiago, Chile.
⁸ Department of Psychology and Logopedics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
⁹ Department of Social Sciences, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland.
¹⁰ 0-3 Centre for the at-Risk Infant, Scientific Institute, IRCCS Eugenio Medea, Lecco, Italy.
¹¹ Department of Child Development, Ewha Woman's University, Seoul, South Korea.
¹² Ewha Social Science Research Institute, Seoul, South Korea.
¹³ Department of Psychology, National Autonomous University of Mexico, México City, Mexico.
¹⁴ Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
¹⁵ Department of Developmental Psychology, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
¹⁶ Department of Child Development and Education, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
¹⁷ Department of Developmental Psychology and Education, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain.
¹⁸ Department of Psychology, Özyeğin University, Istanbul, Turkey.
¹⁹ Research Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk, Russia.
²⁰ Department of Early Childhood Education, Trakya University in Edirne, Edirne, Turkey.
²¹ Department of Psychology, Babes Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

Abstract

Objectives: The present study examined parental sleep-supporting practices during toddlerhood in relation to temperament across 14 cultures. We hypothesized that passive sleep-supporting techniques (e.g., talking, cuddling), but not active techniques (e.g., walking, doing an activity together), would be associated with less challenging temperament profiles: higher Surgency (SUR) and Effortful Control (EC) and lower Negative Emotionality (NE), with fine-grained dimensions exhibiting relationships consistent with their overarching factors (e.g., parallel passive sleep-supporting approach effects for dimensions of NE).

Methods: Caregivers (N = 841) across 14 cultures (M = 61 families per site) reported toddler (between 17 and 40 months of age; 52% male) temperament and sleep-supporting activities. Utilizing linear multilevel regression models and group-mean centering procedures, we assessed the role of between- and within-cultural variance in sleep-supporting practices in relation to temperament.

Results: Both within-and between-culture differences in passive sleep-supporting techniques were associated with temperament attributes, (e.g., lower NE at the between-culture level; higher within-culture EC). For active techniques only within-culture effects were significant (e.g., demonstrating a positive association with NE). Adding sleep-supporting behaviors to the regression models accounted for significantly more between-culture temperament variance than child age and gender alone.

Conclusion: Hypotheses were largely supported. Findings suggest parental sleep practices could be potential targets for interventions to mitigate risk posed by challenging temperament profiles (e.g., reducing active techniques that are associated with greater distress proneness and NE).

Keywords: cross-cultural comparisons; parenting behaviors; sleep; temperament; toddlerhood.

Copyright © 2022 Pham, Desmarais, Jones, French, Wang, Putnam, Casalin, Linhares, Lecannelier, Tuovinen, Heinonen, Raikkonen, Montirosso, Giusti, Park, Han, Lee, Huitron, de Weerth, Beijers, Majdandžić, Gonzalez-Salinas, Acar, Slobodskaya, Kozlova, Ahmetoglu, Benga and Gartstein.