Child Sleep Concerns: Caregiver Problem Recognition and Help-Seeking

Objective: Sleep concerns are common in children but often go untreated. Help-seeking models suggest that for children to receive health care, their caregivers must: recognize the problem, decide to seek help, and select a service. The current study aimed to fill gaps in the literature by examining caregiver problem recognition and help-seeking for behavioral sleep concerns in childhood. Methods: Data were collected via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Participants were 219 caregivers of children ages 7–12 who provided information about help-seeking and their child’s sleep. Results: Nearly half of the children in the sample had clinically significant sleep concerns based on caregiver responses to the CSHQ. Only 38% of the caregivers of children with clinically significant sleep difficulties accurately recognized their child’s sleep as problematic. Of caregivers who identified sleep as a problem for their child, only 42.6% had spoken with anyone about their concerns. Severity of the sleep problem and caregiver experience with mental health predicted problem identification and help-seeking. Specialty behavioral health services were underutilized with nearly 80% of caregivers indicating that they had or would seek help from their child’s pediatrician but less than 25% indicating that they had or would seek help from a therapist or psychologist. Conclusion: Results support previous findings that children’s sleep problems are under-recognized and under-treated. Future research and clinical work is needed to close the gap between the need for services and service use.