Reliability and validity of CSHQ in urban preschool-aged children of mainland China

Abstract

The Children¡ ¯s Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ) is a useful and well-established survey tool for screening sleep problems primarily in 4–10 years old children. Its reliability and validity have been examined in Chinese school age children. This study aimed to assess its reliability and validity in a large representative preschool-aged sample in China urban areas. Altogether 4050 questionnaires were distributed to kindergarten children and completed by their parents or other guardians. Another 113 CSHQ questionnaires were distributed for test-retest reliability and analyzed with intraclass correlation coefficients. Internal consistency was evaluated by Cronbach ∣ Á. The construct validity was preliminarily explored by subscale-level factor analysis. Of the 4050 distributed questionnaires, 3320 (86.2%) were reclaimed. Mean age was 4.82 (SD = 1.06) and 52.4% were boys. For test–retest questionnaires, 113 distributed and 106 (93.8%) were reclaimed. The Cronbach ∣ Á for the full scale was 0.72 and for subscales it ranged from 0.44 (Night wakenings) to 0.63 (Daytime sleepiness); the test- retest reliability for the full scale was 0.77 and ranged from 0.38 (Sleep duration) to 0.76 (Sleep anxiety) for subscales, with exceptionally low. Factor analysis showed that the 8 domains loaded on three common factors, which could explain 61.35% of the total variance. The CSHQ demonstrated a not optimum but basically acceptable psychometrical properties in urban Chinese kindergarten children. We are grateful for those informants and kindergartens participated in our study.