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Agreement between parent-reports and child self-reports of sleep problems in Chinese children

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Abstract

Sleep problems are major concerns for parents, health professionals, and children and youths themselves. For assessing sleep problems, both parent and child reports are important, with each having its unique features. However, little is known about the correlates of the agreement between parent and child self-reports. This study evaluated the agreement between the youth self-report sleep questionnaire (YSRSQ) and the parent-reported children’s sleep habits questionnaire (CSHQ) and assessed the associated sociodemographic factors, as well as the underlying discrepancies. The participants included 3143 pairs of Chinese preadolescents (mean age = 11.03, SD = 0.98) and parents. Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), daytime sleepiness, and parasomnia were assessed by both the YSRSQ and CSHQ. Significant but low correlations were present between parent report and preadolescent self-report items on SDB problems, daytime sleepiness, and parasomnias. Although the agreement between SDB symptoms and parasomnias was stronger for girls than for boys, the degree of concordance between SDB symptoms and parasomnia increased with preadolescent age, with the highest agreement achieved among preadolescents aged 12 years or older for SDB problems and 11 years or older for parasomnias. Findings underscore the importance of utilizing both parental and preadolescent self-reports in accurately assessing and diagnosing sleep impairment in pediatric samples.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the children, families, teachers, and the research team from the China Jintan Cohort Study Group. Thanks are also extended to Amy Yang and Yingjie Wang for initial data exploration and Jessica Wang for manuscript proofreading.

Funding

Funding was provided by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences/NIH/NIEHS Grants (R01-ES-018858, K02-ES-019878, and K01-ES015877). For the work, Guanghai Wang was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81601162), Shanghai Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning (20164Y0001), and Shanghai Children’s Medical Center Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Pennsylvania Schools of Nursing and Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Jianghong Liu, Xiaopeng Ji & Naixue Cui

  2. Department of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, Pediatric Translational Medicine Institute, Shanghai Children’s Medical Center, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, MOE-Shanghai Key Laboratory of Children’s Environmental Health, Shanghai, China

    Guanghai Wang

  3. University of Delaware School of Nursing, Newark, DE, USA

    Xiaopeng Ji

  4. Shandong University School of Nursing, Jinan, China

    Naixue Cui

  5. Shandong University School of Public Health, Jinan, China

    Xianchen Liu

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  1. Jianghong Liu
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Correspondence to Jianghong Liu.

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On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures for data collection were approved by the Institutional Review Boards from both the University of Pennsylvania and the Ethical Committee for Research at Jintan Hospital in China.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Liu, J., Wang, G., Ji, X. et al. Agreement between parent-reports and child self-reports of sleep problems in Chinese children. Sleep Biol. Rhythms 16, 283–291 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41105-018-0152-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41105-018-0152-z

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