A Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Children's Report of Sleep Patterns

Abstract

Sleep is essential for learning, memory, neurobehavioral functioning, and emotion regulation. The importance of sleep in children has led to the creation of numerous sleep assessment instruments. However, there is a dearth of validated self-report measures. In an attempt to fill the gap, the Children’s Report of Sleep Patterns (CRSP) was developed for children ages 8-12. Despite its apparent strengths, the initial validation of the complete CRSP in this age group reported a number of scales and indices that were not empirically evaluated and only Cronbach alphas were reported. To further explore the psychometric properties of the CRSP in school-aged children, factor analysis is necessary to understand the latent structure, as well as the relationships among the constructs. The purpose of this study was to examine the first-order factor structure of the Sleepiness Scale and the Sleep Disturbances Scales of the CRSP in a sample of preadolescent children. As an exploratory aim, the degree to which the five scales contributed to a higher-order Sleep Problems Total Score was examined. Participants were 3rd-5th grade children recruited from two elementary schools (N = 109). Results of the current study revealed that the hypothesized first-order factor structure is not supported and several modifications are necessary to achieve acceptable model fit. Based on modifications from the first-order model, the Sleep Problems Total Score was derived, achieving high internal consistency. Therefore, it is recommended that the Sleep Problems Total Score be calculated and used in conjunction with other scales obtained from the CRSP. Despite promising findings, researchers and clinicians interested in using the CRSP should continue to assess its validity by exploring the relationship between the measure and objective measures of sleep patterns and behavior.