0836 Objective Sleep And Child Resiliency In Deployed Compared To Non-deployed Military Families

Abstract Introduction For military families, parent deployment can be a stressful event. Studies are mixed however, with some showing military families, including children, to be resilient in terms of behavioral and emotional adjustment in relation to deployment. However, the effects of deployment on children’s sleep, which is highly susceptible to stress, has not been explored. Methods Participants were 229 children aged 7 to 17 (M age=11.34, SD=2.92, female=50.9%) with at least one parent on active duty in the military. Children completed the Resiliency Scales for Children and Adolescents (RSCA; Prince-Embury, 2007) and one week of actigraphy and daily diaries of sleep and stressors. The RSCA is a 64-item self-report instrument that measures domains of resiliency and vulnerability. Results Children with a deployed parent reported greater anxiety, but no differences in number of daily stressors, resiliency scores, or objective sleep and diary variables were found. Given age-dependent changes in sleep, age was entered as a control. Greater resiliency was associated with greater self-reported sleep quality in both groups (r=.30, p