Primary School Children's Perspectives on Healthy Sleep: A Participatory Pilot Study With Photovoice

Abstract

Getting sufficient sleep is critical for the physical and psychological development of children. In previous studies, the focus has been on pathogenetic approaches to disturbed or insufficient sleep. Population-based interventions, which are still rare and mostly based on an educational perspective, do not appear to have lasting effects. In order to develop sustainable and effective health promotion interventions, it is thus important to explore the influencing factors and to develop these together with children. Participatory health research with children is still rare and has methodological and ethical issues. Photovoice in the context of qualitative research with children has been discussed as a promising approach. In this article, results of a pilot study on determinants influencing healthy sleep from the perspective of primary school children are presented. In addition, the participatory development of the results is reflected in relation to the methodological proceedings with photovoice.