PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

The current state of research shows a research gap with regard to the interrelations between sleep problems, media use and ADHD symptoms. In order to investigate this for children be-tween the ages of five and 10 years, a questionnaire survey will be conducted as part of this study. For this purpose, parent-report versions of the Children’s Sleep Habits Questionnaire, the ADHD assessment form from the diagnostic system for mental disorders according to ICD-10 and DSM-V for children and adolescents as well as further questions on media use will be used. In order to include relevant control variables, the short version of the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire is used to record parenting behaviour. Therefore, 122 mothers and five fathers of 127 children between five and 10 years completed the questionnaires. The re-sults were pathwise consistent with the hypotheses. There were significant correlations be-tween sleep problems, media use and ADHD symptoms. Daily media use was found to be a significant moderator between sleep problems and inattention. Due to this moderating effect of daily media use, approaches for interventions could be formed that could possibly alleviate the symptoms by reducing media use during the day. Bedtime media use did not appear as a significant moderator, suggesting that while screen reduction may be appropriate for clinically relevant media use, bedtime media use as a sleep ritual may also be potentially sleep-inducing. To confirm the results discovered, further research should be conducted, especially longitudi-nally, to test the causal effects of the triad and of derived possible treatments and newly as-sumed sleep-promoting effects of bedtime media use.