Assessing Parental Sleep Attitudes and Beliefs in Typically Developing Children and Children With ADHD and ASD

Abstract

Sleep problems are commonly reported in children, yet often go untreated. Parental beliefs about sleep may be a contributing factor. This study developed a measure to assess these beliefs. The Sleep Attitudes and Beliefs Scale (SABS) was administered to parents of typically developing (TD) children (n = 179) and children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; n = 84) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD; n = 92). Results indicated that the psychometric properties (i.e., inter-item reliability and Cohen's alpha) of the SABS are good and that, in comparison to the TD sample, parents of children with ADHD and ASD held beliefs that children's sleep problems were more intrinsic, less modifiable, and less responsive to treatment. Further work is required, but it is hoped that the SABS can be used both clinically, to determine factors that may contribute to and maintain children's sleep problems, and in research settings.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Carolyn Ievers-Landis served as the action editor for this manuscript.

Notes

¹Two items had high multiple loadings (i.e., > .39), and were deleted. One item was deleted after comparing results of factor analyses for the typically developing (TD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder/autism spectrum disorder (ADHD/ASD) samples. This item did not load onto the same factors for the TD and ADHD/ASD samples. We suspect that the wording of this item (which referred to nonspecific behavioral strategies) may have been interpreted differently by parents in the TD and ADHD/ASD groups.