Rêves dysphoriques et rêves récurrents chez les enfants et les adolescents : corrélats psychosociaux et implications cliniques

The aim of this thesis was to investigate the associations between dysphoric dreams (e.g., bad dreams and nightmares), recurrent dreams, and psychosocial adjustment in a population of children and young adolescents. It is comprised of one review article and four empirical articles.    The first article is a literature review of studies having investigated dysphoric dreams in children and adolescents, with a focus on their prevalence, correlates and treatments. This review shows that more than half of children and adolescents experience dysphoric dreams. Even if having such negative dreams is common in these populations, dysohoric dreams are not without significance. In fact children with dysphoric dreams have more sleep problems, and more psychosocial difficulties than those who do not report dysphoric dreams. Finally, this article shows that there exist promising treatment options for disturbing dreams. The second article aimed to investigate the relationship between dysphoric dreams and a range of variables measuring psychosocial adjustment while taking into account key methodological shortcomings of previous studies in the field (and highlighted in the first article). In addition, the study examined the possible moderator role of emotional negativity in the relation between dysphoric dreams and psychosocial adjustment. Results show that the presence of dysphoric dreams is associated with internalizing difficulties and that emotional negativity moderates the relation between dysphoric dreams and externalizing difficulties.  The third article examines the content of recurrent dreams reported by children and young adolescents, a largely neglected question to date. Specifically, the study reports on the prevalence, thematic content and emotional valence of recurrent dreams reported by children between 11 and 15 years old. This article shows that approximately one third of children report having had a recurrent dreams in the past year and that the majority of these dreams are negatively toned.  The fourth article aimed to determine if, as shown in adult populations, the presence of recurrent dreams in children is associated to impoverished psychosocial adjustment. Results show that recurrent dreams are associated to reactive aggression in boys but that they show no evident relation to indices of psychosocial adjustment among girls.   The fifth and final article examines the question of whether or not the presence of dysphoric and recurrent dreams in children is associated to suicidal ideation, as shown to be the case in recent studies of adult populations. This study reveals that the occurrence of recurrent as well as dysphoric dreams shows an association with suicidal ideation in 12 and 13 year old children.  Following these five articles, the results and conclusions drawn from this body of work are integrated into the existing literature, their theoretical as well as clinical implications explored, and future studies proposed.

Keyphrases: Dysphoric dreams, Recurrent dreams, Psychosocial adjustment, Suicidal ideation