Gender Inequality in Managing Childhood Sleep: Which Parent Gets up at Night?

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Parental responsibilities for childcare remain unequally distributed between mothers and fathers. This study investigates whether such gender disparity also applies to night-time care, particularly when children experience sleep disorders.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional survey study including 882 clinical files from sleep consultations for children aged 0 to 5 years, completed by one parent (98% mothers). To assess inter-rater reliability, 112 father-mother dyads outside the clinical setting were also surveyed. Additionally, 1409 mothers from the general population formed a control group.

Results

In the clinical group, 60% of children were cared for exclusively by their mother at night, versus 9% by the father. In the control group, the figures were

SUBMITTER: Breton A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12025490 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature