Roux researcher receives top award for work on sleep problems in children with autism

Bree Taylor, a research assistant professor in life sciences and medical science at Northeastern University’s Roux Institute, has always been fascinated by sleep.

More specifically, the intersection of sleep and behavior and mental health, specifically in the context of children with autism.

Taylor, an emerging researcher in the field of mental and behavioral health, was presented with the Harold Osher Award for Excellence in Clinical and Population Health at the annual Lambrew Research Retreat sponsored by the MaineHealth Research Institute on May 1st, 2024. One hundred and thirty abstracts were submitted for the award, and after a blind panel review, Taylor’s abstract, “Sleep Problems in Children with Autism at the Time of Psychiatric Hospitalization in Relation to Parental Stress and Self-Efficacy,” was awarded first place in the category of clinical and population health research.

Taylor’s research focuses on the sleep problems experienced by children with autism and their impact on families, with a focus on children with profound autism who are more likely to suffer from sleep disorders.

“I think of sleep as the glue or lynchpin that keeps families functioning together,” Taylor says. “If kids aren’t sleeping, no one is sleeping. It affects so much more than we realize.”

Taylor worked as a postdoc and faculty scientist at MaineHealth for five years before joining Northeastern’s Roux Institute, and she still holds a visiting scientist position at MaineHealth. Much of her data was gathered and research done in partnership with the MaineHealth Research Institute.

Taylor collected data from families admitting their children to six different inpatient facilities across the country, including the Spring Harbor Hospital, a MaineHealth facility. Parents or caretakers provided extensive information about their children and themselves via questionnaires, including information about their child’s sleep quality. Taylor categorized participants into four groups: children without sleep problems, children with trouble falling asleep, children with trouble staying asleep, and children with trouble both falling and staying asleep.

Taylor then asked parents about their own stress levels, their confidence in handling their child’s behavioral issues, and their perception of their child’s difficulty of care. She also examined social factors like family income and whether the household had one or two parents.

The results were clear: families of children with sleep difficulties experience higher stress, feel less capable of managing difficult behaviors, and perceive their children as more challenging. These effects are intensified in lower-income and single-parent households. In short, sleep issues may lead to higher parenting stress, and less effective management of behavioral problems.

Taylor believes her research highlights the broader impact of sleep on parenting children with autism and the related mental and behavioral health challenges.

“When it comes to children with sleep problems, we tend to focus solely on the kids, forgetting that the people who have to carry out behavioral sleep interventions are the parents,” Taylor said. “When parents are exhausted, they may tend to resort to the quickest, easiest fix in the moment. But that might not always be the best thing for long-term sleep hygiene, and may actually perpetuate a child’s sleep problems. This is why we need to identify the best ways to support parents with this challenging issue.

A native of Portland, Maine, Taylor aims to use her research to support vulnerable families in Maine and beyond. She will continue studying the effects of sleep on autism and, with the help of colleagues at the Roux Institute, plans to utilize computational models to develop personalized sleep behavior medicine recommendations. With the right data, her team could create models of sleep solutions tailored to specific contexts.

The Roux Institute’s Director of Life Science and Medical Research, Raimond Winslow, says Taylor brings highly skilled quantitative modeling and data sciences approaches to her discipline.

“Her work spans both the worlds of patient-based studies and data collection to quantitative modeling. She and her team are leading the way in this new discipline,” Winslow said.

Taylor is excited to continue her research at the Roux Institute and continue to make an impact on her home state. “What drew me to the Roux Institute was its focus on helping Maine. So much of my research starts in Maine and can be deployed to help communities here,” Taylor said.