Relationship between sleep time preference of adolescents and their parents

This study aimed to explore the relationship between sleep time preference of adolescentsand their parents, considering gender separately. To this end, 912 adolescents(501 females) from 10 to 17 years were administered the Morningness–EveningnessQuestionnaire for Children and Adolescents and their parents filled in the Morningness–Eveningness Questionnaire. To assess sleep time preference, the ideal midpointof sleep was computed. A mathematical function was developed in order to correctthe evolution of the ideal midpoint of sleep over time. The actual values wereadjusted on the basis of those provided by the function for a specific age and genderand then reclassified into a new ordinal variable, with five categories, according tothe interval where difference between actual and predicted values lies. This variableis informative as to the degree and magnitude of the ideal midpoint of sleep dispersionregarding/compared to the average value for a certain age and sex, representedby estimated function. The correlations between actual values of the ideal midpointof sleep of adolescents and actual values of their parents, separately for gender ofboth, were not significant. The “corrected” ideal midpoint of sleep of daughtersresulted significantly correlated with those “corrected” of mothers and fathers; furthermore,these correlation values were significantly higher than those detectedbetween daughters and unrelated parents, highlighting the fact that such a privilegedrelationship between daughters and both parents is not due to chance.