Abstract
Although disturbing dreams are prevalent in youth and are associated with psychopathology, little is known about their developmental course and risk factors. We aimed to examine the association between early social environment and subsequent disturbing dream frequency across adolescence as moderated by early negative emotionality. Measures of children’s early social environment and negative emotionality were collected from the mothers of 410 children (5–42 months old) and measures of disturbing dream frequency directly from the children (13–18 years old). Preliminary steps identified subgroups of families with distinct profiles of social environment using latent variable mixture modeling, and captured changes in disturbing dream frequency using latent growth modeling. Regression and moderation analyses were conducted to test the study objectives. Results showed that the diverse family patterns were best captured by two profiles reflecting adverse and positive social environments and that overall disturbing dream frequency decreased during adolescence. Moderation analyses showed that when early negative emotionality was higher, DD frequency was not only more elevated in an adverse environment, but lower in a positive environment. These results indicate that the development of disturbing dreams is most strongly associated with a combination of individual and environment factors. Our study adds to the literature by refining our conception of individual traits and disturbing dream development and has implications for the prevention of bad dreams, nightmares, and associated psychopathologies.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the Institut de la Statistique du Québec and its partners. We thank all the parents and children for their generous participation in the study.
Funding
This study was funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research via a fellowship to Jean R. Séguin, grants MOP 44072 to Jean R. Séguin, MOP-97910 to Jean R. Séguin and Sophie Parent, and MOP 97865 to Antonio Zadra; the Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal to Mira El-Hourani; the Fonds de Recherche en Santé du Québec via fellowships to Jean R. Séguin, grants 981055 to Jean R. Séguin and Richard E. Tremblay, and 991027 to Jean R. Séguin; the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada via a scholarship to Mira El-Hourani, grants 412-2000-1003 to Jean R. Séguin, 839-2000-1008 to Richard E. Tremblay, Jean R. Séguin and Sophie Parent, and 410-99-1048 to Sophie Parent; and the Fonds Québécois pour la recherche sur la Société et la Culture grants 2002-RS-79238 to Richard E. Tremblay, Jean R. Séguin and Sophie Parent, 2009-RG-124779 to Richard E. Tremblay and Jean R. Séguin, and 2015-RG-178735 to Richard E. Tremblay and Jean R. Séguin and 2021-RG11-281152 to Jean R. Séguin, Natalie Castellanos-Ryan and Sophie Parent.
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Mira El-Hourani contributed to the study design, analyzed the results, wrote and reviewed the manuscript, for which a previous version was included in her accepted PhD thesis. Antonio Zadra obtained supporting grants, contributed to the study design, supervised the study, wrote and reviewed the manuscript. Natalie Castellanos-Ryan contributed to the study design, analyzed the results, wrote and reviewed the manuscript. Charlie Rioux analyzed the results, wrote and reviewed the manuscript. Richard E. Tremblay and Sophie Parent obtained supporting grants, contributed to the study design, data collection, and reviewed the manuscript. Jean R. Séguin obtained supporting grants, designed and supervised the study, contributed to the statistical analyses, and reviewed the manuscript. All authors, read and approved the submitted version of the manuscript.
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El-Hourani, M., Zadra, A., Castellanos-Ryan, N. et al. Longitudinal Study of Early Adversity and Disturbing Dream Frequency: Moderating Role of Early Negative Emotionality. Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol 52, 277–291 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-023-01109-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-023-01109-1