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Sleep Disturbances in Pediatric Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors: A Preliminary Investigation

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Abstract

Body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs) are repeated actions to one’s body resulting in physical damage. Limited research has examined sleep, a known factor in psychological health, within the context of pediatric BFRBs. The current study sought to explore the connection between disordered sleep and BFRBs in a community sample. Aim 1 of the study was to determine the predictive power of group membership [control group (no BFRB symptoms reported), subthreshold BFRB group (mild BFRB symptoms reported; severity score of 2 or less out of 9), and those with symptoms characteristic of BFRBs (more than mild BFRB symptoms reported; severity score of 3 or higher out of 9)] for level of sleep disturbance. A hierarchical regression revealed that there was a significant effect of group membership after controlling for anxiety (F (3, 410) = 152.976, p < .001). Aim 2 of the study was to test whether there was a relationship between sleep disturbance and BFRB severity. The hierarchical regression revealed that at Step 1, anxiety accounted for 23.1% of the variance in BFRB severity (β = 0.48, t = 8.87, p < 0.001). At Step 2, sleep disturbance total score accounted for an additional 7.2% of the variance, suggesting this variable makes a unique contribution to overall BFRB severity (SDSC: β = 0.40, t = 5.18, p < 0.001). The findings of this study suggest that sleep could be a clinical factor to consider when conceptualizing a child with BFRBs.

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Funding

Funding for this study was provided by a private Grant from the TLC Foundation for Body-Focused Repetitive Behavior Disorders (awarded to the last author). The TLC Foundation had no role in the study design, collection, analysis or interpretation of the data, writing the manuscript, or the decision to submit the paper for publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychological Sciences, Kent State University, 600 Hilltop Dr, Kent, OH, 44240, USA

    Sydney D. Biscarri Clark, Ashley A. Lahoud, Theresa R. Gladstone, Emily P. Wilton & Christopher A. Flessner

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  1. Sydney D. Biscarri Clark
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  2. Ashley A. Lahoud
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  3. Theresa R. Gladstone
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  4. Emily P. Wilton
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  5. Christopher A. Flessner
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Contributions

CF designed the larger study from which the data for this manuscript was collected. SBC conducted data analyses, drafted the manuscript, and incorporated co-authors’ revisions. AL, TG, EW, and CF provided critical revisions. All authors contributed to and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Sydney D. Biscarri Clark.

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Clark, S.D.B., Lahoud, A.A., Gladstone, T.R. et al. Sleep Disturbances in Pediatric Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors: A Preliminary Investigation. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 54, 1396–1403 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-022-01346-3

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