The Development of a Scale to Assess Children's and Adolescents' Sleep Environments

Department

Psychological Sciences

Document Type

Article

Publication Source

Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine

Publication Date

2022-06-15

Abstract

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To develop a measure of children’s sleep environments and to assess its initial reliability and validity.

METHODS: This cross-sectional study consisted of an online survey for parents of 5–18-year-old children across the United States. A total of 840 parents/caregivers (Mage=40.6 years, SD=8.6; 72.0% female) completed surveys regarding a target child (Mage=10.4 years, SD=3.8). The scale’s items were evaluated with exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses in separate random sample halves of the dataset. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were calculated to assess internal consistency across multiple demographic groups. We explored convergent and discriminant validity by examining associations with measures from the nomological net of constructs surrounding the child sleep environment. Finally, we examined incremental/unique predictive validity of the full scale and its subscales through regression analyses.

RESULTS: The Children’s and Adolescents’ Sleep Environment Scale (CASES; 13 items) produced three factors: general environmental hazards (7 items), availability of bedding materials (2 items), and the presence of electronics (4 items). The full scale and its subscales demonstrated strong discriminant validity, and analyses suggested that the CASES and its subscales were generalizable across diverse demographic groups. Finally, after controlling for children’s sleep hygiene, sleep disturbances, behavioral problems, and family functioning, the full-scale CASES significantly predicted children’s sleepiness, as did the general environmental hazards and presence of electronics subscales in a separate regression analysis.

CONCLUSIONS: The CASES demonstrates strong psychometric properties and has emerged as both a reliable and valid indicator of children’s and adolescents’ sleep environments and their potential impact on children’s sleep and sleep-related behavior.

Keywords

children, daytime functioning, sleep environment

DOI

10.5664/jcsm.10110

https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.10110

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