title: What do preschool-aged children do when they wake at night: toward an understanding of night-waking behaviors among community children.
abstract: Little is known about behaviors displayed by preschoolers during night-waking. Mothers (N = 203) of community preschoolers completed the Children's Night-waking Behavior Scale and measures of night-waking, co-sleeping, and daytime behavior. Approximately 1/2 of wakings involved calling out, getting out of bed, and requests for comfort; 1/4 involved activity, fear, or instrumental requests. Specific associations between night-waking behaviors, night-waking, and bedtime and daytime behaviors were observed; associations were not consistent across child gender and age. For example, comfort requests were associated with mothers' perceptions of sleep as problematic in 4- and 5-year-old children only (ρ = .42); activity requests were associated with hyperactivity for boys only (r = .36). Understanding night-waking requires consideration of factors beyond parenting, such as children's behavior, age, and gender.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , The University of Western Ontario , London , Ontario , Canada.
authors.forename: J Aimée
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Coulombe
authors.forename: Graham J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Reid
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D002652:Child Behavior; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers; D016487:Parenting; D012737:Sex Factors; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology; D007319:Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires