Abstract

Sleep arousal, or waking experiences during sleep, in young children was examined in relation to pacifier usage and the caregiver’s use of the swaddling technique. Primary caregivers of young children from 1 to 24 months old, fluent in English, and 18 years or older completed a Qualtrics survey detailing their child’s sleep routines. The survey questions considered the child’s use of self-soothing devices and the caregiver’s use of soothing techniques, namely pacifiers and swaddling. By utilizing the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire-Revised (BISQ-R; Sadeh et al., 2020), we examined the relationship between child sleep arousal and pacifier usage, along with sleep arousal and swaddle usage. By using a convenience sample of 33 participants, we found that there was no significant correlation between child sleep arousal and pacifier use. The results of an independent t-test revealed no statistical difference in sleep arousal between pacifier users and non-users, t(18.85) = .69, p = .26. Along with this, the results of an independent t-test revealed no statistical difference in sleep arousal between swaddle users and non-users, t(21) = .89, p = .19. These findings suggest that pacifier usage and/or use of the swaddling technique has no significant relationship to child sleep arousal.

Recommended Citation

Goldsmith, Kenzie and DuBois, Melanie (2022) "The Links Between Young Children’s Use of Pacifiers and Swaddling with Child Sleep Arousal," Undergraduate Psychology Research Methods Journal: Vol. 2: Iss. 1, Article 5.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.lindenwood.edu/psych_journals/vol2/iss1/5