Disturbing Dreams and Psychosocial Maladjustment in Children: A Prospective Study of the Moderating Role of Early Negative Emotionality.

Although frequent disturbing dreams, including bad dreams and nightmares, have been repeatedly associated with poor psychological well-being in adults, considerably less information exists on their psychosocial correlates in children. Recent empirical and theoretical contributions suggest that the association between disturbing dream frequency and psychosocial adaptation in children may differ as a function of children's negative emotionality. The current study assessed the moderating effect of very early negative emotionality (17 months of age) in the relation between disturbing dream frequency and psychosocial maladjustment (i.e., externalizing + internalizing behaviors) in a sample of 173 11-year-old children. Mixed-model analyses revealed that disturbing dream frequency was associated with some internalizing behaviors but that the association between disturbing dream frequency and most externalizing behaviors was moderated by early negative emotionality. The latter result indicates that the relation between disturbing dream frequency and externalizing behaviors was significant in 11-year-old children showing moderate negative emotionality early in life, but particularly strong in those children with high early negative emotionality. Whereas, a moderating effect of early negative emotionality was not found between disturbing dream frequency and internalizing behaviors, the findings highlight the more specific role of early emotional negativity as a developmental moderator for the link between disturbing dreams and externalizing behaviors in children. The results are discussed in light of recent models of disturbed dreaming production.

The content of recurrent dreams in young adolescents.

Studies on children's recurrent dreams have been largely anecdotal and based on adults' recollections of dreams experienced during childhood. We collected 102 reports of recurrent dreams from a sample of young adolescents aged between 11 and 15years and scored the narratives using a range of content measures, including in relation to the threat simulation theory (TST) of dreaming. The most frequently reported themes involved confrontations with monsters or animals, followed by physical aggressions, falling and being chased. Recurrent dreams were more likely to include negative content elements than positive elements. Only half of the recurrent dreams contained threatening elements and their analysis provided mixed support for the TST. Differences between the content of recurrent dreams reported by young adolescent versus adults are discussed as are possible sex effects and key issues that remain to be addressed by future research.

Recurrent Dreams and Psychosocial Adjustment in Preteenaged Children.

Research indicates that recurrent dreams in adults are associated with impoverished psychological well-being. Whether similar associations exist in children remains unknown. The authors hypothesized that children reporting recurrent dreams would show poorer psychosocial adjustment than children without recurrent dreams. One hundred sixty-eight 11-year-old children self-reported on their recurrent dreams and on measures of psychosocial adjustment. Although 35% of children reported having experienced a recurrent dream during the past year, our hypothesis was only partially supported. Multivariate analyses revealed a marginally significant interaction between gender and recurrent dream presence and a significant main effect of gender. Univariate analyses revealed that boys reporting recurrent dreams reported significantly higher scores on reactive aggression than those who did not (d = 0.58). This suggests that by age 11 years, the presence of recurrent dreams may already reflect underlying emotional difficulties in boys but not necessarily in girls. Challenges in addressing this developmental question are discussed.