The Role of Parental Beliefs about their Sleep and Sleep of their Child in the Regulation of Sleep and Wakefulness in Children 5-13 Years Old: Cultural-Historical Approach in Psychosomatics

Abstract

From perspective of cultural-historical approach in psychosomatics, the psychological regulation of a child's sleep and wakefulness is developed in children in interaction with significant adults. The aim was to reveal the relationship between dysfunctional beliefs of parents about their own sleep and its vulnerability as well as their violations of sleep hygiene and parental beliefs about the sleep of their children aged 5-13, the beliefs of the children about their sleep and their quality of sleep and wakefulness. 147 pairs of "parent-child 5-13 years old without diagnosed sleep disorders" participated (47 pairs with a child 5-6 years old, 49 pairs with a child 7-9 years old, 51 pairs with a child 10-13 years old). Parents answered questions about their child's sleep pattern, filled children's sleep habits questionnaire, dysfunctional beliefs about sleep and sleep vulnerability scales about their own and their child's sleep, insomnia severity index, and a scale of behavioral factors of sleep disturbances about their own sleep. Children answered the questions of children's self-report about their sleep, dysfunctional beliefs about and vulnerability of their sleep scales, pediatric sleepiness scale. According to the analysis of mediation, dysfunctional perceptions of parents about their own sleep are indirectly associated with sleepiness and sleep difficulties in children, since they increase the likelihood of the same perceptions of parents about their children's sleep. Sleepiness, according to the children appraisals, is additionally indirectly related to the dysfunctional beliefs of parents about their sleep through the mediation of the child's beliefs about their sleep. Parents' beliefs about their sleep vulnerability are associated with children's poorer sleep and sleepiness, as they increase the likelihood of the child's sleep vulnerability beliefs, which, in turn, increase the likelihood of the child's own perceptions of the vulnerability of his sleep. The data are consistent with the perspective of the psychology of physicality about the development of the psychological regulation of sleep and wakefulness of the child in interaction with significant adults.