Helping Clinicians Conceptualise Behavioural Insomnia in Children: Development of the Kids Insomnia Problems Scale (KIPS)

Abstract This paper outlines the development and psychometric evaluation of the Kids Insomnia Problems Scale (KIPS), an instrument intended to assess factors underpinning child behavioural insomnia. Study 1 comprised an exploratory factor analysis (EFA; n = 328 parents of children aged 3–12 years), with items found to load highly onto 6 factors; Sleep Maintenance Problems, Co-Sleeping Behaviours, Bedtime Routines, Bedtime Resistance, Bedtime Worries and Bedtime Fears. Study 2 comprised a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and tests of convergent validity (n = 313), with results confirming the factor structure and providing evidence for convergent validity through correlations in expected directions between KIPS scores and other sleep, anxiety and behaviour measures. Study 3 tested the test-retest reliability of the KIPS (n = 53), and found support for the temporal stability of the KIPS over a 2-week period. Overall, the results provide strong preliminary evidence for the validity of the KIPS total score and its subscales, although the Bedtime Routines subscale may be less useful.