Child and Family Characteristics Associated with Sleep Disturbance in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

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ORIGINAL PAPER

Child and Family Characteristics Associated with Sleep Disturbance in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Hannah Waddington1 · Laurie McLay2 · Lisa Woods3 · Andrew J. O. Whitehouse4

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020

Abstract Little is known about the role of family characteristics in sleep disturbance for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study involved an exploratory analysis of the association between 17 child, parent, and socioeconomic characteristics and sleep disturbance using data from 203, 2–18-year-old children with ASD whose families participated in the Western Australian Autism Biological Registry. Results suggest that greater ASD symptom severity; child seizures; maternal autism traits, anxiety, and depression; lower paternal education; and lower family income were related to increased sleep disturbance. All these characteristics, aside from maternal depression, were significant predictors within a regression model, which accounted for 33% of the total variance. Thus, child characteristics alone may not adequately explain sleep disturbance in children with ASD. Keywords  Autism spectrum disorder · Sleep · Parent characteristics · Socioeconomic status Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by difficulties with social communication and interaction, and the presence of restricted and repetitive behaviors, interests, and activities (American Psychological Association 2013). Research suggest that most children with ASD also have at least one additional medical or behavioral comorbidity (Soke et al. 2018). One of the most common comorbidities is sleep disturbance, which effects an estimated 40 to * Hannah Waddington [email protected] Laurie McLay [email protected] Lisa Woods [email protected] Andrew J. O. Whitehouse [email protected] 1



School of Education, Victoria University of Wellington, P.O. Box 600, Wellington 6140, New Zealand

2



School of Health Sciences, College of Education, Health, and Human Development, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

3

School of Mathematics and Statistics, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

4

Telethon Kids Institute, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia



90% of individuals with ASD (Fadini et al. 2015; Hodge et al. 2014; Johnson et al. 2009; Mannion and Leader 2016; Tyagi et al. 2019). Sleep disturbance may include bedtime resistance, sleep-related anxiety, sleep onset delay, reduced sleep duration, frequent and prolonged night wakings, and parasomnias such as sleep walking, night terrors, and bruxism (Owens et al. 2000; Schreck and Mulick 2000). Research suggests that sleep disturbance and deprivation may increase the severity of ASD symptoms, decrease cognitive and emotional functioning, and increase behaviors such as selfinjury, tantrums, and aggression (Goldman et al. 2011; Henderson et al. 2010; Park et al. 2012; Tudor et al. 2012). Without effective treatment, sleep problems in ch