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. 2009 Jan;18(1):20-5.
doi: 10.1007/s00787-008-0697-5. Epub 2008 Jun 10.

Factors affecting nightmares in children: parents' vs. children's ratings

Michael Schredl  1 , Leonie Fricke-Oerkermann, Alexander Mitschke, Alfred Wiater, Gerd Lehmkuhl
Affiliations

Factors affecting nightmares in children: parents' vs. children's ratings

Michael Schredl et al. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2009 Jan.

Abstract

Objective: The present study investigated the relationship between daytime symptomatology and nightmare frequency in school-aged children by eliciting daytime symptoms and nightmare frequency from children directly in addition to questionnaires completed by their parents.

Methods: A sample of 4,834 parents and 4,531 of their children (age range: 8-11 years) completed each a sleep questionnaire and the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ).

Results: The results of the study clearly indicate that there is an underestimation of nightmare frequency in the parents' ratings compared to the children's data (effect size: d = 0.30) and the closeness between influencing factors and nightmare frequency is considerably higher for the data based on the children's responses; the proportion of explained variance was twice as high.

Conclusions: Therefore, it seems important for research and clinical practice to not to rely on parents' information but to ask the children about the occurrence of nightmares.

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