Chaotic living conditions and sleep problems associated with children's responses to academic challenge.

Abstract

The ecology of economic disadvantage includes chaotic living conditions that may disrupt children's regulatory functioning and undermine mastery oriented responses to challenge. The present study examined chaotic living conditions, sleep problems, and responses to academic challenge for 96 economically disadvantaged children enrolled in a Head Start preschool. Caregiver interviews provided information regarding chaotic living conditions of residential crowding, noise, and family instability, as well as child sleep problems. Tasks individually administered to children provided measures of responses to academic challenge. Chaotic living conditions statistically predicted helpless/hopeless responses to academic challenge, and sleep problems partially mediated this relationship. Implications concern pathways of ecological risk and diversity in the school functioning of economically disadvantaged children.

Socioeconomic Adversity and Women's Sleep: Stress and Chaos as Mediators

“…Chaotic homes may be noisier at bedtime, more likely to experience midnight disruptions, or generally less conducive to establishing sleep routines. The finding that chaos was associated with sleep problems is consistent with the few studies conducted with children (Brown & Low, 2008; Gregory et al, 2005) and extends the findings to adults. Future observational and diary studies may help in understanding how chaotic home environments disrupt sleep and in providing a context for understanding the observed effects.…”

“…Chaotic home environments are related to children’s sleep problems (Brown & Low, 2008; Gregory, Eley, O’Connor, Rijsdijk, & Plomin, 2005), although not much is known about the extent to which home chaos affects adult sleep. Given that greater home chaos has been negatively related to family income and education (Dumas, LaFreniere, & Serketich, 1995), and that chaos has been shown to have negative effects on the sleep of children, it stands to reason that home chaos may serve as a mediator of effects in relations between SES and sleep for adults.…”

The role of household chaos in understanding relations between early poverty and children’s academic achievement

“…When experienced in early childhood prior to school entry, household chaos appears to undermine the development of cognitive and non-cognitive competencies that are vital to academic achievement. For example, preschoolers who live in chaotic homes are likely to demonstrate low expectations, lack of persistence, and withdrawal from academic challenge (Brown & Low, 2008). Excessive noise and crowding in chaotic homes may undermine children's developing regulatory systems that support their ability to focus and sustain attention.…”

Predicting Academic Achievement from Cumulative Home Risk: The Mediating Roles of Effortful Control, Academic Relationships, and School Avoidance

“…Children of parents who actively promote learning in the home more positively engage in relationships outside the home and in learning (Marchant, Paulson, & Rothlisberg, 2001), perhaps because these parents help children approach learning environments more positively. The premise that home environment risks, such as negative parenting (Clark, Dogan, & Akbar, 2003), a chaotic household (Brown & Low, 2008), parents' low educational attainment or income level (Davis-Kean, 2005), and single-parent family structure (see Zill, 1996), are correlates of poor academic functioning is also well supported.…”