Psychology Department

Education

• Post-doctoral fellow, University of Virginia, 2010–2012
• Ph.D., Indiana University, Bloomington, 2010

Interests and Expertise

A single night of poor sleep can lead people to do or say things they next day that they wish they hadn't. This is also true for parents and children. For example, poor sleep makes it harder for parents to keep their cool or a child to stay on task. Between age 2 and 4, kids stop napping, start resisting going to sleep, and may need comfort when awakened in the night. With sleep itself changing, it's difficult to understand how different sleep behaviors influence daytime behaviors and vice versa. Parenting, sleep, and daytime behavior are my core research interests. Specifically, I study the relation between sleep and parent–child communication. Well, I do this with many students—undergraduate and graduate—as well as colleagues. We measure sleep with questionnaires, daily sleep diaries, and actigraphy (watch-like devices). We observe parents and children interacting while they play with, and then clean up, toys either at home or in the lab. It takes a lot of people to collect, code, enter, and analyze data. One of my favorite parts about research is collaborating with students and colleagues as part of the Self-regulation, Early Experience and Development (SEED) Lab. More information about me can be found here.

Current research projects

• Maternal depression and infant night waking
• Consequences of screen use during the bedtime routine
• Maternal psychopathology and the development of infant temperament

Collaborators

Dr. Jamie Lawler

Dr. Renee Lajiness-O'Neill

Courses

• PSY 200 Careers in Psychology
• PSY 205 Quantitative Methods in Psychology
• PSY 301W Introductory Experimental Psychology
• PSY 600 Psychological Statistics I
• PSY 601 Psychological Statistics II
• PSY 681 Introduction to Multilevel Models

Publications and Presentations

Hoyniak, C. P., Bates, J. E., Camacho, M. C., McQuillan, M. E., Whalen, D. J., Staples, A. D., Rudasill, K. M., & Deater-Deckard, K. (2022). The physical home environment and sleep: What matters most for sleep in early childhood. Journal of Family Psychology. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/fam0000977

Lajiness-O’Neill, R., Raghunathan, T., Berglund, P., Huth-Bocks, A., Taylor, H. G., Staples, A. D., Brooks, J., Lukomski, A., Gidley Larson, J. C., & Warschausky, S. (2022). Caregiver-reported newborn term and preterm motor abilities: Psychometrics of the PediaTracTM Motor domain. Pediatric Research, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-022-02312-4

Lobermeier, M., Hicks, A., Staples, A. D., Huth‐Bocks, A. C., Warschausky, S., Taylor, H. G., Lukomski, A., Brooks, J., & Lajiness‐O’Neill, R. (2022). Longitudinal changes in term and preterm infant night wakings: The role of caregiver anxious‐depression. Infant Mental Health Journal, imhj.22024. https://doi.org/10.1002/imhj.22024

Lobermeier, M., Staples, A. D., Peterson, C., Huth-Bocks, A. C., Warschausky, S., Taylor, H. G., Brooks, J., Lukomski, A., & Lajiness-O’Neill, R. (2022). Cumulative risk, infant sleep, and infant social-emotional development. Infant Behavior and Development, 67, 101713. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2022.101713

McQuillan, M. E., Bates, J. E., Hoyniak, C. P., Staples, A. D., & Honaker, S. M. (2022). Children’s sleep and externalizing problems: A day-to-day multilevel modeling approach. Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/15402002.2022.2156510

Prakash, K., Tu, J., & Staples, A. (2022). Impact of neighborhood quality and recent life stressors on sleep problems: A longitudinal study of adolescents at risk for maltreatment. Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy for Children at Risk, 13, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.58464/2155-5834.1490

Sperber, J. F., McQuillan, M. E., Hoyniak, C. P., Staples, A. D., Rudasill, K. M., Molfese, V. J., & Bates, J. E. (2022). Sleep and negative affect across toddlerhood in the context of stress. Affective Science, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42761-021-00094-2

2021

Carr, M. M., Ellis, J. D., Saules, K. K., Page, J. L., Staples, A., & Ledgerwood, D. M. (2021). Substance use gambling, binge-eating, and hypersexuality symptoms among patients receiving opioid agonist therapies. The American Journal on Addictions, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajad.13149

Deater-Deckard, K., Chary, M., McQuillan, M. E., Staples, A. D., & Bates, J. E. (2021). Mothers’ sleep deficits and cognitive performance: Moderation by stress and age. PLOS ONE, 16(1), e0241188. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0241188

Hoyniak, C. P., Bates, J. E., McQuillan, M. E., Albert, L. E., Staples, A. D., Molfese, V. J., Rudasill, K. M., & Deater-Deckard, K. (2021). The family context of toddler sleep: Routines, sleep environment, and emotional security induction in the hour before bedtime. Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 19(6), 795–813. https://doi.org/10.1080/15402002.2020.1865356

Hoyniak, C. P., McQuillan, M. M., Bates, J. E., Staples, A. D., Schwichtenberg, A. J., & Honaker, S. M. (2021). Pre-sleep arousal and sleep in early childhood. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 182(4), 236–251. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221325.2021.1905596

Lajiness-O’Neill, R., Warschausky, S., Huth-Bocks, A., Taylor, H. G., Brooks, J., Lukomski, A., Raghunathan, T. E., Berglund, P., Staples, A. D., Erdodi, L., & Schilling, S. (2021). PediaTrac V.3.0 protocol: A prospective, longitudinal study of the development and validation of a web-based tool to measure and track infant and toddler development from birth through 18 months. BMJ Open, 11(12), e050488. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-050488

McQuillan, M. E., Bates, J. E., Staples, A. D., & Deater-Deckard, K. (2021). A 1-year longitudinal study of the stress, sleep, and parenting of mothers of toddlers. Sleep Health. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleh.2021.08.006

McQuillan, M. E., Bates, J. E., Staples, A. D., Hoyniak, C. P., Rudasill, K. M., & Molfese, V. J. (2021). Sustained attention across toddlerhood: The roles of language and sleep. Developmental Psychology, 57(7), 1042–1057. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001197

Petersen, I. T., Bates, J. E., McQuillan, M. E., Hoyniak, C. P., Staples, A. D., Rudasill, K. M., Molfese, D. L., & Molfese, V. J. (2021). Heterotypic continuity of inhibitory control in early childhood: Evidence from four widely used measures.Developmental Psychology, 57(11), 1755–1771. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001025

Staples, A. D., Hoyniak, C., McQuillan, M. E., Molfese, V., & Bates, J. E. (2021). Screen use before bedtime: Consequences for nighttime sleep in young children. Infant Behavior and Development, 62(December 2020), 101522. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2020.101522

Complete list

Google Scholar

Additional Information

Website