Abstract
Although frequent disturbing dreams, including bad dreams and nightmares, have been repeatedly associated with poor psychological well-being in adults, considerably less information exists on their psychosocial correlates in children. Recent empirical and theoretical contributions suggest that the association between disturbing dream frequency and psychosocial adaptation in children may differ as a function of children's negative emotionality. The current study assessed the moderating effect of very early negative emotionality (17 months of age) in the relation between disturbing dream frequency and psychosocial maladjustment (i.e., externalizing + internalizing behaviors) in a sample of 173 11-year-old children. Mixed-model analyses revealed that disturbing dream frequency was associated with some internalizing behaviors but that the association between disturbing dream frequency and most externalizing behaviors was moderated by early negative emotionality. The latter result indicates that the relation between disturbing dream frequency and externalizing behaviors was significant in 11-year-old children showing moderate negative emotionality early in life, but particularly strong in those children with high early negative emotionality. Whereas, a moderating effect of early negative emotionality was not found between disturbing dream frequency and internalizing behaviors, the findings highlight the more specific role of early emotional negativity as a developmental moderator for the link between disturbing dreams and externalizing behaviors in children. The results are discussed in light of recent models of disturbed dreaming production.
Highlights
Up to 20% of children experience psychosocial adjustment difficulties [1, 2] which are typically divided between externalizing and internalizing problems [3, 4], both categories evince common and unique risk factors [5]
While frequent DDs, including bad dreams and nightmares, have been repeatedly associated with poor psychological well-being and increased psychopathology in clinical and nonclinical adult populations [27], considerably less information exists on their psychosocial maladjustment correlates in children
Using the MIXED models, none of the DDs by informant interactions were significant, and early negative emotionality was not correlated to DDs (r = 0.04; p = 0.58)
Summary
Up to 20% of children experience psychosocial adjustment difficulties [1, 2] which are typically divided between externalizing and internalizing problems [3, 4], both categories evince common and unique risk factors [5]. Even after controlling for other risk factors, sleep problems appear to explain a small but significant proportion of the variance in both externalizing and internalizing behaviors [15, 18]. Different sleep problems appear to be associated with different externalizing or internalizing problems [6, 19]. Among these sleep problems, disturbing dreams (DDs; vivid dreams marked by intense negative emotions such as fear, anxiety, and anger) are frequently experienced by children [20,21,22,23,24]. While frequent DDs, including bad dreams and nightmares, have been repeatedly associated with poor psychological well-being and increased psychopathology in clinical and nonclinical adult populations [27], considerably less information exists on their psychosocial maladjustment correlates in children
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