Sleep quality and its associations with psychological well-being in chronic ill children and their caregivers

Sleep, as well as being a fundamental basic function of human functioning, holds the role of supporting cerebral maturational processes and contributes to the achievement of a good level of well-being. Poor sleep quality and consequent worse daytime functioning frequently occur in the clinical population. In the present study, sleep habits and their links with psychological characteristics were deepened in chronically ill children: particularly 56 children affected by type 1 diabetes, 33 children with cancer, and 61 controls (with an age range between 7 and 15) were considered, along with their related caregivers. The first study's aim regarded the exploration of the associations between sleep and psychological outcomes in the two clinical samples and their caregivers, comparing them with the control sample, respectively. Successively, the associations between parental and children’s sleep quality were analyzed in all the three groups. Standardized questionnaires and ad-hoc surveys were administered to assess caregivers’ measures of parenting stress, global functioning, general health, sleep quality and anxiety, and children’s psychological adaptation and sleep quality.