Psychometric Properties of the Persian Version of Children's Sleep Comic

 Insomnia is one of the most common sleep problems among children and is associated with a wide variety of impairments such as aggression, decreased attention and concentration, daytime sleepiness, hyperactivity, and irritability. A child with insomnia can affect the whole family. It is important to assess insomnia and sleep behaviors of children because insomnia is not a common diagnosis in them. Children’s Sleep Comic is a questionnaire to diagnose insomnia in children aged 5-11 years, which can be completed within 20 minutes.

 The aim of the present study was to translate and investigate the Persian form of Children’s Sleep Comic's content validity and reliability.

 This cross-sectional study was carried out on 209 children aged 5-11 years in primary schools and preschools of Tehran who were selected by random cluster sampling in 2019. The translation was done with the forward-backward method. The content validity was evaluated by 10 occupational therapists, and quantitative content validity was determined by calculating the Content Validity Index (CVI) and Content Validity Ratio (CVR). Internal consistency was assessed through Cronbach’s alpha and test-retest reliability via Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) among 30 children after one week as well as Standard Error of Measurement (SEM).

 Overall, 220 children were entered into the study; however, 11 children were excluded because of missing data. The translation of Children's Sleep Comic was considered easy and acceptable. The content validity, which was assessed by CVR and CVI were desirable (0.8 and 0.8, respectively), and the internal consistency was 0.76. ICC and SEM were 0.97 and 0.02, respectively.

 The findings of this study showed that the Persian version of the Children's Sleep Comic questionnaire is a reliable and valid instrument that can be used for screening insomnia in Iranian children aged 5-11 years.