Sleep and depression have been linked and questioned if a deficit sleep pattern were a sufficient condition for arising of depressive symptoms. This study tries to examine the prevalence of sleep problems and depression in school-aged children. Four-hundred and sixty-seven elementary school-children, aged 6 and 11 years (M= 8,70; DP=0,692) were evaluated in two moments. The results revealed that during the school-year both nosological entities reduced prevalence rates, and also a negative association between academic performance and depressive symptoms were found in both evaluation moments (T1 rho=-0,349; p=0,000; T2 rho=-0,406; p=0,000). The implications of such data for evaluation and intervention in children will be discussed, taking into account the possibility of a early interventions to prevent onset of depressive states in infancy which maintain and heighten sleep problems.
Epidemiology; Sleep disorders; Infant depression; Academic performance
