Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Diurnal type in children: Preliminary results about the European Portuguese version of the CCTQ

2013; Elsevier BV; Volume: 14; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.sleep.2013.11.314

1878-5506

D. Douto, Ana Allen Gomes, MH Azevedo, Vanda Clemente, S. Bós, Cristiana J. Silva,

Sleep and related disorders

Few tools exist to measure morningness–eveningness in young children. Recently, Werner, LeBourgeois, Geiger and Genni published the Children Chronotype Questionnaire (CCTQ), a parental 27 item questionnaire designed to extract three chronotype measures, in 4–11 years old children. The aim of the present study was to develop an European Portuguese version [PT] of the CCTQ and to examine its psychometric properties. A permission request to develop a Portuguese version was sent to the CCTQ authors. A first translation draft was generated; next it was examined by experts; the resulting version was after that tested using "thinking aloud" procedures, and then an experimental CCTQ [PT] version was defined. This version was completed by a sample of parents/tutors of 397 children (47.1% boys), 4−11 yrs-old. Based on their answers, three chronotype measures were computed: the morningness/eveningness scale score (M/E); the midsleep point on free days (MSF); the five point chronotype score (CT). As to internal consistency, Chronbach alpha for the M/E scale was 0.71. Corrected item-total correlations ranged from .28 to .55, with an average of .39. With regard to the chronotype measures, scores on the M/E scale showed a gaussian distribution with a mean of 28.2 (SD = 6.0, Min = 15 and Max = 44); for MSF a mean of 3:47 (SD = 44 min) was obtained; and at the CT measure a median of 2 was found. Correlation coefficients between the chronotype measures revealed moderate to strong associations (from rs = .34 to r = .54). These preliminary results found in our sample for the Portuguese CCTQ were similar to the ones obtained on the original CCTQ, for the M/E scale. However, our children showed later schedules, as expressed by MSF. This first Portuguese study, together with the authors' comments on the back translation, highlighted the strengths of our experimental version, but also some aspects to refine, which led us to define the final Portuguese version of the CCTQ. A study in a larger national sample is now needed. We are grateful to Dr. Werner, Professor Jenni, and remaining CCTQ authors for their permission to develop the Portuguese version. Thanks are also due to the Dep. of Education (Univ. Aveiro) for the support regarding the printed materials used in data collection. The present work is currently supported by Research Project PTDC/PSI-EDD/120003/2010 funded by FCT/COMPETE/QREN.