Chinese translation and validation of the adolescent sleep wake scale

Abstract Background Inadequate sleep is a problem for teens world-wide. Identifying the biological and cultural factors that underlie this phenomenon is dependent on tools that can accurately query sleep-related behaviors. While there are many sleep-related questionnaires available in English, there are a paucity of validated Chinese language versions. As such, it was the purpose of this study to translate the Adolescent Sleep Wake Scale into Chinese and to provide a preliminary validation of this questionnaire. Methods We used a dual forward translation-back translation approach to translate the Adolescent Sleep Wake Scale into Chinese. We then tested the sensitivity, specificity, and internal consistency of the translated questionnaire using 517 adolescents from Taiwan. Preliminary criterion validity was examined through comparison with a measure of chronotype, with the a priori assumption that evening chronotypes would have worse sleep-related behavior. Results Internal consistency for both the overall scale (α = .86) and five subscales (α’s > .81) were good. These five subscales explained 62.6% of the total variance. Confirmatory Factory Analysis indicated a good fit of the data. The overall scale and each of the subscales also showed the expected relationship with chronotype, with worse sleep-related behavior in evening-types. Conclusion Our Chinese translation of the Adolescent Sleep Wake Scale is valid and has preliminary criterion validity. This can be a useful tool to explore sleep quality among Chinese-speaking adolescents as well as cross-cultural aspects of sleep behavior between Chinese- and English-speaking adolescents.