PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

Objective. Being a parent is often associated with less sleep and sleep problems. In addition, young children often suffer from sleep problems. Hence, children’s sleep problems can evoke sleep problems in their parents. However, little is known about sleep of family members.Method. A total of 54 parents with their children between 4 and 12 years of age (mean 7.04 years) participated in this study prior to a universal parent-training. Sleep problems were assessed by the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and the Symptom Checklist 90-R (SCL-90-R). Psychological problems of the children and parental burden were further evaluated with the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI). In addition, parental behavior was assessed with the short form of the Parenting Scale of Arnold (“Erziehungsfragebogen für Eltern”, EFB-K).Results. In sum, 13% of the children showed shorter overall sleep duration than other children, whereas 5.6% slept more. None of the parents reported daytime sleepiness in their children, but 3.9% reported that their children do often have nightmares and also 3.9% often talk during sleep. Altogether 15.4% of the parents thought that their child suffered from sleep problems. Problems falling asleep were reported by 19.6% of mothers and 10.5% of fathers and disturbed sleep was reported by 33.3% of mothers and 12.6% of fathers, whereas 15.8% of mothers and 8.4% of fathers were suffering from waking up too early in the morning. Children with sleep disturbances did not differ significantly from children without sleep problems regarding their psychological disturbances. However, parents differed with regard to parental burden, depression, anxieties, and sleep problems. The main limitations are the small sample size and the lack of a healthy control group.Conclusion. In contrast to their parents, children with or without sleep problems did not differ concerning psychological disturbances. Consequently, even if the child is not affected by sleep problems these issues need to be considered for parents participating in a universal parent-training. Furthermore, fathers also need to be integrated into diagnostics, not only mothers, because sleep problems and other psychological problems are often experienced by both parents.