The Cosleeping Habits of Military Children

Abstract

Cosleeping is a topic frequently of concern to parents; however, little objective evidence exists to support the historical prohibition against children sleeping in the same bed with their parents. Surveys from the parents of 86 children in the clinics of pediatrics and child psychiatry were analyzed to describe patterns of cosleeping in a group of military dependents aged 2 to 13 years. Shown is a significant increase in cosleeping with father absence and that cosleeping is less frequent in the psychiatric subpopulation.

Just five more minutes please: electronic media use, sleep and behaviour in young children

“…For example, in a study on co-sleeping habits of military children, Forbes, Weiss, and Folen (1992) found that girls slept in the same bed as someone else more frequently than boys when their fathers were away. Moreover, researchers have shown a relationship between persistent co-sleeping in children and a myriad of sleep problems (e.g.…”

A Theory of Risk and Resilience Factors in Military Families

“…Children of deployed parents have been found to be at higher risk for developing internalizing problems (Kelley et al, 2001;Medway et al, 1995;Rosen, Teitelbaum, & Westhuis, 1993), including depression (Jensen, Grogan, Xenakis, & Bain, 1989;Jensen, Martin, & Watanabe, 1996) and anxiety (Jensen et al, 1989), as well as increased child and parent cosleeping (Forbes, Folen, & Weiss, 1992) and academic and aggressive/ disciplinary problems (Rosen et al, 1993;Schwab et al, 1995). However, not all studies have found clear evidence of impairment in overall academic functioning of children with deployed parents relative to those with nondeployed parents (Pisano, 1993), perhaps because the school environment likely remains unchanged during periods of parental deployment.…”

Why babies should never sleep alone: A review of the co-sleeping controversy in relation to SIDS, bedsharing and breast feeding

“…Forbes et al 62 found that co-sleeping children on US military bases received better comportment scores from their teachers, were engaged in more social activities and, compared with children who never slept in their parents bed when one partner went off for assignment, cosleeping children were 'under-represented in the psychiatric care population.' Male college students who had co-slept with their parents between birth and 5 years of age had significantly higher self-esteem, experienced less guilt and anxiety and reported greater frequency of sex.…”