A Longitudinal Examination of Bedtime Routines and Sleep in Toddlers

Ample research has examined the impacts of sufficient and high-quality sleep on children’s health, development, and well-being (Chen, Beydoun, & Wang, 2008; Gregory & Sadeh, 2012; Touchette et al., 2009), yet less research has focused on the factors that contribute to sufficient and high-quality sleep in early childhood. The bedtime routine is one environmental influence on children’s sleep that has received little attention in the literature base and therefore is the focus of the current study. In a sample of 399 30-month old toddlers studied over the course of one year, three aims were investigated: the within-age consistency of the bedtime routine on a nightly basis and how bedtime routine consistency impacts sleep outcomes; the longitudinal stability of bedtime routines across time; and the child characteristics, specifically temperamental negative affect, that impact the bedtime routine and sleep outcomes. Five main findings emerged: (a) children experience variability in their bedtime routines when measured on a nightly basis; (b) nightly variability in the length of the bedtime routine is more important for sleep outcomes than is nightly variability in the activities of the bedtime routine; (c) nightly sleep does not impact bedtime routines the following night; (d) bedtime routines are stable across time; and (e) negative affect is not associated with bedtime routines or sleep. The findings from the present study represent a contribution to the field in what is known about the complex interplay between bedtime routines and sleep in young children. Advisor: Julia Torquat

Concern, Conflict, and Chaos: Nebraska Educator Experiences during the Pandemic

During the spring of 2020, Nebraska’s 983 public schools sat vacant, and Nebraska’s 329,290 Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12 students were learning in environments other than school. Educators were expected to pivot quickly from traditional classroom instruction to remote experiences. Understanding the effects of the pandemic on educators is necessary to effectively meet their needs and the needs of students. The purpose of this study was to identify and describe the experiences of Nebraska’s urban and rural PreK–Grade 12 educators during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. In surveys collected in July 2020, participants (i.e., superintendents, principals, and teachers) completed both fixed-response items and one open-ended question that assessed experiences during the initial pandemic-related school closings. The results indicate educators identified lack of family help and inability to engage students as a top concern about student academic progress. Educators reported dramatic increases in stress during school closures. Many reported coping only somewhat well or worse. Educators also reported personal challenges with remote instruction, including mental health issues and blurred work-and home-life boundaries. Significant differences were found between rural and urban educators, as well as between elementary and secondary educators. Direct quotes from participants vividly describe their lived experiences

Community Capacity Building: Supporting Military Children and Families Environmental Scan of Extension Professional Development Opportunities for Early Childhood and School-Age Providers: Final Report

The purpose of this environmental scan was to discover what professional development is offered through the Cooperative Extension System to early childhood or school age providers across the nation. A secondary focus was to assess the availability of professional development opportunities offered through the Cooperative Extension System for providers who serve children (birth–12) from military families, both on and off installation. Through this process, the strengths of Extension were highlighted and existing resources that could be replicated for use in other states were identified

Temperament and Teacher–Child Conflict in Preschool: The Moderating Roles of Classroom Instructional and Emotional Support

Research Findings: This study is an examination of (a) links between preschool children’s temperament (effortful control, shyness, and anger) and teacher– child conflict and (b) classroom instructional and emotional support as moderators of associations between temperament and teacher–child conflict. Children (N = 104) were enrolled in 23 classrooms in 9 preschools in a Midwestern city. Teachers provided ratings of children’s temperament and parents reported demographic information in the fall of the school year, classrooms were observed in the winter to assess instructional and emotional support, and teachers rated conflict with children in the spring. Multilevel models were estimated, and 3 main findings emerged. First, children’s effortful control was negatively associated with their level of conflict with teachers. Second, children’s effortful control was negatively related to teacher–child conflict in classrooms with low emotional support but unrelated to conflict in classrooms with high emotional support. Third, children’s effortful control was negatively related to conflict in classrooms with high instructional support but unrelated to conflict in classrooms with low instructional support. Practice or Policy: Findings highlight the importance of considering the interplay of children’s effortful control and preschool classroom instructional and emotional support in the development of early teacher–child conflict

Relations Between Toddler Sleep Characteristics, Sleep Problems, and Temperament

Two sources of information (parent reported sleep diaries and actigraph records) were used to investigate how toddler sleep characteristics (bed time/sleep onset, wake time/sleep offset, total nighttime sleep and total sleep time) are related to sleep problems and temperament. There were 64 toddler participants in the study. Consistent with studies of older children, parent reports differed from actigraph based records. The findings that parent reported and actigraph recorded sleep characteristics varied as a function of parent report of toddler sleep problems and temperament add needed information on toddler sleep. Such information may contribute to improving parents’ awareness of their child’s sleep characteristics and correlates of problem sleep

Community Capacity Building: Supporting Military Children and Families Environmental Scan of Extension Professional Development Opportunities for Early Childhood and School-Age Providers: Final Report

The purpose of this environmental scan was to discover what professional development is offered through the Cooperative Extension System to early childhood or school age providers across the nation. A secondary focus was to assess the availability of professional development opportunities offered through the Cooperative Extension System for providers who serve children (birth–12) from military families, both on and off installation. Through this process, the strengths of Extension were highlighted and existing resources that could be replicated for use in other states were identified

Temperament and Teacher-Child Relationship Quality in Preschool: The Moderating Roles of Classroom Environmental Support and Family Income

The present study is designed to examine the association between child temperament and teacher-child relationship quality, focusing on the moderating role of income and classroom emotional support in preschool. Findings are consistent with other research linking children’s temperament and teacher-child relationships, and highlight the importance of considering the role of children’s temperament in the development of relationships with teachers in early childhood. Teacher training and professional development programs could be strengthened by emphasizing individual differences in temperament,and the way that these individual differences impact a child’s development. Results also point to the contributions of environmental influences, namely classroom emotional support and family income, to the development of children’s relationships with their teachers

Examining the associations between performance based and ratings of focused attention in toddlers: Are we measuring the same constructs?

The study examines the concurrent and longitudinal associations between ratings-based measures (parents, secondary caregivers, and observers) and performance-based measures of focused attention in toddlers aged 30 (n = 147), 36 (n = 127), and 42 months (n = 107). Parents and secondary caregivers rated focused attention behaviours using the Children's Behaviour Questionnaire and observers rated toddlers' focused attention during a series of laboratory tasks using the Leiter-R Examiner Rating Scale. Toddlers' behaviours on three structured tasks (Token Sort, Toy Play, and Lock Box) were used to assess their performance-based focused attention in a laboratory setting. Correlations show that parent ratings are not related to observer and teacher ratings or to the performance-based measures at all ages tested. Second, based on confirmatory factor analyses, a single factor explains the common variance between indicators when the parent ratings are not included in the models. The single factor shows measurement invariance between ages 36 and 42 months based on factor structure, relations of indicators to the factor, and factor scale over time. Third, indicators of focused attention at age 30 months do not seem to measure a common, coherent factor. Interpretations of similarities and differences between ratings and performance-based indicators of focused attention and the presence of a focused attention construct are discussed.United States Department of Health & Human Services National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA NIH Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD

Temperament and Preschool Children’s Peer Interactions

Research Findings: The current study is an examination of children’s temperament as a predictor of their interactions with peers in preschool, with a particular focus on children’s regulatory temperament characteristics (i.e., inhibitory control and attentional focusing) as moderators of associations between shyness and interactions with peers. Participants were 40 children (19 boys) ages 3 to 5 years enrolled in 8 different preschools in a midwestern city in the United States. Temperament was assessed via parent report when children were approximately 3 years old, and peer interactions were assessed via observations of children during the preschool day (using the Individualized Classroom Assessment Scoring System; J. T. Downer, L. M. Booren, O. K. Lima, A. E. Luckner, & R. C. Pianta, 2010) when the children were 4 years old. Attentional focusing moderated the association between shyness and children’s communication and conflict during peer interactions. Inhibitory control and attentional focusing were inversely related to peer conflict, and attentional focusing was positively related to sociability, communication, and assertiveness in peer interactions. Limitations of the current study and future directions are also discussed. Practice or Policy: Teachers can facilitate young children’s peer interaction by recognizing children’s regulatory and reactive temperamental characteristics

Parent vs. teacher ratings of children’s shyness as predictors of language and attention skills

Shyness in childhood has been linked to multiple adjustment outcomes, including poor peer relations, internalizing problems, and clinical anxiety. However, shyness does not consistently emerge as a negative predictor of children’s success. This incongruity may stem, in part, from variations in the operationalization and measurement of shyness in different studies. Researchers often combine parent and teacher ratings of shyness, but correlations between parent and teacher reports are consistently small to medium. The purpose of this study is to examine parent and teacher ratings of shyness as they predict language and attention skills in preschool children, and explore discrepancies between parent and teacher ratings of shyness. Participants were 104 preschool children (48 males, 56 females), enrolled in 22 classrooms. Results from multi-level modeling revealed that teacher, but not parent, ratings of shyness using the shyness subscale of the Children’s Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ) were significantly and negatively associated with children’s early language and attention skills. Follow-up exploratory factor analyses with parent and teacher CBQ shyness subscale ratings revealed a similar two-factor structure reflecting shyness and low sociability. Results suggest that a) discrepancies between parents’ and teachers’ views of children’s shy behaviors may stem from the different contexts and developmental time periods in which they observe children, and b) teachers’ ratings of shyness are more closely associated with children’s skills in an academic setting. Implications for research are discussed