The French Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children

- This study adapted and validated a French version of the Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children (SDSC).
- This is the first scale for sleep disorders in children that has been validated in French.
- The French SDSC can be used by specialists to provide more accurate diagnoses of sleep disorders.

ObjectiveThe psychometric properties of the Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children (SDSC) have been shown to be accurate, even when translated into several languages. The aim of the present study was to translate, adapt, and validate the SDSC for a French-speaking population.MethodsAfter forward- and back-translation, the tool was further translated and adapted into the French language. It was then pretested in terms of clarity on 33 French-speaking parents. Pretesting demonstrated that the questionnaire was well understood, indicating good clarity. During the validation phase, a total of 447 French-speaking parents of children aged between 4 and 16  years completed the SDSC. Among these, 66 children were diagnosed with sleep disorders by a pediatric specialist after a sleep consultation and polysomnographic recordings.ResultsThe factor analysis revealed five factors: difficulty in initiating and maintaining sleep (DIMS), sleep breathing disorders (SBD), disorders of excessive somnolence (DOES), parasomnias (PARA) and non-restorative sleep (NRS). This psychometric structure is reliable and logical in comparison with the experts' diagnoses. Convergent validity, divergent and internal reliability are very good. Inter-parental concordance in scoring the child's sleep problem does show differences in the ways in which parents report their children's sleep patterns. Cut-off was calculated for the total score (45).ConclusionThis study validated a 25-item French version of the questionnaire. The French SDSC could therefore be used to aid screening of sleep disorders in the general population.