Parent versus youth reported sleep patterns as correlates of sleep, mood, and quality of life

Aims: This study examined the reliability and agreement in parent versus youth reports of sleep problems, as well as how these scales relate to mood, global functioning, comorbidity, and quality of life. Methods: This secondary analysis utilized data from a multi-site study examining the prevalence and clinical characteristics of bipolar disorders in youths (ages 4-18; N = 828) who sought treatment for various behavioral and emotional problems in outpatient mental health centers (Youngstrom et al., 2005). Youths and their caregivers completed the K-SADS interview to examine the presence of DSM-IV diagnoses and global functioning (Kaufman et al., 1997). The sleep scales (parent and youth reports) from the General Behavior Inventory (GBI; Meyers & Youngstrom, 2008) and the Achenbach System of Empirically-Based Assessment (CBCL & YSR; Gregory & O'Connor, 2002) measured sleep problems. The K-SADS Mania Rating Scale (KMRS) and Depression Rating Scale (KDRS; Axelson et al., 2003) assessed manic and depressive symptom severity, and the parent report KINDL measured quality of life (Ravens-Sieberer & Bullinger, 1998). Youths ages 11+ completed self-report questionnaires. Cronbach's alphas quantified the internal consistency of the CBCL and GBI sleep scales, and Pearson's correlations measured the relationships between the parent and youth-reported sleep scales, KMRS, KDRS, and KINDL total scores. Results: The GBI sleep scales showed higher internal consistency (Parent α = 0.82; Youth α = 0.80) than the six CBCL sleep items (Parent α = 0.58; Youth a = α.75). Parent and youth-report GBI sleep scores were significantly correlated, r = 0.24, p <0.001, as were CBCL scores between parent and youth reports, r = 0.31, p <0.001. Both parent and youth report GBI and CBCL sleep scores were positively correlated with KMRS (rs = 0.18 to 0.38; ps <0.001) and KDRS scores (rs = 0.22 to 0.42; ps <0.001) and negatively correlated with KINDL scores (rs = -0.12 to-0.43;ps