THE children of parents who frequently argue may develop behavioural problems because the conflict disrupts their sleep.

American scientists have found that the more children are exposed to parental disputes, the worse they sleep.

The effects of struggling to get to sleep, waking up and being kept awake because of noise, and greater restlessness while asleep, were found to have an effect on the children’s behaviour and learning ability during the day.

It has long been observed that children who grow up in homes with high levels of conflict tend to have behavioural problems but the exact reasons have remained a matter of debate. The study, by Auburn University, in Alabama, and Brown University, in Rhode Island, suggests that the way rows disrupt sleep patterns has a serious negative effect.

Researchers assessed sleeping habits in 54 healthy children aged 8 and 9, none of whom had a history of sleeping disorders. The average level of arguing between parents in their homes was considered “normal”, although in some instances the rows could develop into something worse.

The researchers measured the levels of conflict and assessed the children’s sleep through parental and child reports. They also had the children wear an Actigraph — a watch-like device that records movement — for seven nights while in bed. Data from the Actigraph helped the researchers to determine when children went to sleep and woke up, how often they woke and how well they slept.

The team found that children in homes with a great deal of conflict went to sleep about the same time as other children but slept less and not as well. A lot of parental arguing resulted in less sleep, less time spent in bed actually sleeping and much more movement — such as fidgeting and tossing and turning. Children in such homes also reported that they were sleepier during the day.

The associations between conflict and sleep were especially strong when the researchers studied the children’s reports of parental conflict, rather than the parents’ accounts. The children who thought that their mothers and fathers argued frequently, with the arguments often intense and left unresolved, had more disrupted sleep.

Mona El-Sheikh, the lead researcher at Auburn University, said that the study showed the unintended consequnces of even relatively minor domestic disputes. “The data suggest that, even in families with normal levels of conflict, parental arguments and anger can disrupt children’s sleep,” Dr El-Sheikh said. “This is significant because even mild loss of sleep can disrupt attention, alter information processing, weaken motivation, increase irritability and diminish emotion control.”

She added that although conflict in families was normal and inevitable the study underlined the importance of how it was managed within a family. “The data here has implications for how parents manage conflict and how they help their children to understand and cope with it.”

A second study, like the first published in the journal Child Development, indicates that the distress felt by children as a result of arguments in the family continues over time.

Researchers found that fighting with a spouse in front of children, or even incidents of parents ignoring each other, created negative thoughts in children about family life that could last a year or more.

A third study showed how the handling of everyday marital disputes has a significant effect on how secure children feel.

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