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Partnership and Insomnia Status Among Mothers
Author(s) -
Kissling Alexandra
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
family relations
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1741-3729
pISSN - 0197-6664
DOI - 10.1111/fare.12455
Subject(s) - ethnic group , insomnia , general partnership , marital status , logistic regression , psychology , demography , longitudinal study , gerontology , medicine , clinical psychology , psychiatry , population , political science , sociology , pathology , law
Objective Mothers are particularly vulnerable to sleep disorders, such as insomnia (i.e., poor sleep quality more than three times per week). Background Partnership status (i.e., being married, formerly partnered, cohabiting, or lone) is predictive of other health outcomes via marital selection, protection, and crisis theories. However, research has yet to address whether mothers' risk of insomnia varies by their partnership status. Method Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, a nationally representative and longitudinal cohort study ( n = 1721), the primary aim of the present study is to test the association between partnership status and sleep. Further, given the association between race–ethnicity and partnership status, as well as race–ethnicity and sleep, this study also considers whether the association between mothers' partnership status and risk of insomnia varies by race and ethnicity. Results Logistic regression results suggest that married mothers are less likely than cohabiting and formerly partnered mothers to experience insomnia. No sleep differences were found when comparing among the unmarried groups. Conclusion When considering race and ethnicity, marriage is protective against insomnia among White and Hispanic mothers but not Black mothers. Implications This study illustrates one way in which partnership status contributes to sleep problems in different ways for White, Black, and Hispanic women.