Mona El-Sheikh - Böcker

Sleep problems of American children have become a matter of national concern, with recent estimates indicating that 13% to 27% of children have sleep problems as reported by their parents. Considering the profound impact that disrupted sleep can have on family functioning and processes, it is critical that researchers and clinicians understand how to identify sources and contexts related to sleep disruptions and their consequences.Sleep and Development: Familial and Socio-Cultural Considerations is the first volume to integrate knowledge and approaches from numerous disciplines to focus on the sleep and development of children across adjustment and cognitive domains. Addressing the sleep patterns of children as well as those of other family members, sleep specialists from pediatrics, human development, family studies, and developmental and clinical psychology examine linkages between sleep and family processes, cultural attitudes towards sleep, and normative sleep disturbances in children, such as resistance to bedtime, chronic deprivation, and inconsistent sleep schedules. Individual chapters offer discussion on topics such as sleep and attachment, the effects of trauma on children's sleep, the cultural ecology of sleep, clinical assessment of sleep, and more. Highlighting research findings obtained within the last ten years, Sleep and Development synthesizes literature from disparate areas of inquiry in an effort to frame future investigations that will lead to a deeper and better integrated understanding of sleep and development. This comprehensive volume is a fundamental text for students, researchers, psychologists, and physicians interested in the study of sleep and sleep problems.

The growing multidisciplinary literature on sleep and development needs to be integrated to yield organizing principles and conceptual frameworks researchers can use to defi ne and measure key constructs. This Monograph has three major aims: to present contemporary conceptual and methodological issues that need to be considered to integrate knowledge of sleep and child development across multiple disciplines, and accelerate the pace and enhance the quality of research (Chapter II); to discuss various sleep methodologies including their advantages and disadvantages (Chapter III); and to provide examples of longitudinal studies, which are needed in this developing area of inquiry, that demonstrate linkages between various sleep parameters and child development across multiple domains (Chapters IV through X). Chapter I introduces the main objectives of the volume, highlights the importance of sleep for child development, and presents a guiding framework for understanding the multiple influences on child sleep. Chapter II summarizes the outcomes of an SRCD sponsored forum on sleep and development that included scholars from multiple disciplines and presents guiding recommendations for research priorities. Themes include biobehavioral mechanisms, family processes, and socio-cultural factors; in addition, open questions and best practices in research design and statistics are discussed. Chapter III presents various sleep assessment methodologies including their advantages and disadvantages. Empirical studies (Chapters IV through X) were solicited from researchers in the fi eld; have a longitudinal element in their designs; demonstrate linkages between various sleep parameters and other key developmental domains; and use objective assessments of sleep duration or quality of "typically" developing children. Chapter XI summarizes key aspects of the various studies presented in this monograph and provides directions for this trans-disciplinary area of research.