{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,4]],"date-time":"2026-02-04T06:00:30Z","timestamp":1770184830299,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":17,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,3]],"date-time":"2026-02-03T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1770076800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Healthcare"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Sleep plays a fundamental role in children\u2019s cognitive, emotional, and behavioral development, and inadequate sleep hygiene is increasingly recognized as a modifiable risk factor for mental-health vulnerability. Background\/Objectives: This article presents the child level baseline component of a broader quasi experimental study grounded in the Community Assessment, Intervention and Empowerment Model (MAIEC). The aim was to characterize Sleep Habits, sleep-hygiene knowledge, and sleep-related perceptions among third-grade children from two primary-school communities in northern Portugal, prior to the implementation of a MAIEC-based community intervention. Methods: Regarding the reporting, only the baseline child level assessment of the study presented in the manuscript, a structured questionnaire, integrating the Portuguese version of the Children\u2019s Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ PT) and questions about Sleep Habits and sleep-hygiene literacy were administered to 40 children. Three composite indices were computed: Sleep Literacy (SLI), Sleep Habits (SHI), and Sleep Symptoms and Perceptions (SSPI). Results: Baseline results revealed heterogeneous Sleep Habits and variable sleep-hygiene knowledge. Children in the experimental community demonstrated higher scores across all indices, with the difference in Sleep Habits (SHI) approaching statistical significance (p = 0.052) and moderate effect sizes observed overall. No sex-based differences were found. Conclusions: These findings identify modifiable behavioral and knowledge-related sleep determinants linked to emotional regulation and mental-health risk. This article reports baseline child-level data from a broader MAIEC-guided study, with the quasi-experimental intervention currently underway and community empowerment already assessed. Future work will present the evaluation of community processes. Overall, these baseline results provide a structured diagnostic foundation for a MAIEC-based community intervention aimed at promoting healthy sleep and strengthening mental-health resilience in primary-school settings.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/healthcare14030390","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,3]],"date-time":"2026-02-03T16:46:28Z","timestamp":1770137188000},"page":"390","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Baseline Sleep Literacy, Habits, and Perceptions Among Primary School Children: Foundations for a MAIEC-Guided Community Intervention in Sleep and Mental Health"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0005-6384","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Pedro","family":"Melo","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Nursing, University of Porto, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal"},{"name":"RISE-Health, MAIEC Lab, School of Nursing, University of Porto, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Joana","family":"Bastos","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"RISE-Health, MAIEC Lab, School of Nursing, University of Porto, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Paula","family":"Moreira","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"RISE-Health, MAIEC Lab, School of Nursing, University of Porto, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1445-6108","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Carlos","family":"Pinto","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"RISE-Health, MAIEC Lab, School of Nursing, University of Porto, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2078-9128","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Vanessa","family":"Monteiro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"RISE-Health, MAIEC Lab, School of Nursing, University of Porto, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4116-2925","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"J\u00f3ni","family":"Madureira","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"RISE-Health, MAIEC Lab, School of Nursing, University of Porto, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal"}]},{"given":"B\u00e1rbara","family":"Ferreira","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"RISE-Health, MAIEC Lab, School of Nursing, University of Porto, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7988-0578","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Filipe","family":"Rodrigues-Pires","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"RISE-Health, MAIEC Lab, School of Nursing, University of Porto, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3395-7653","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Teresa","family":"Martins","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Nursing, University of Porto, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal"},{"name":"RISE-Health, MAIEC Lab, School of Nursing, University of Porto, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3839-344X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ana Paula","family":"Cantante","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Nursing, University of Porto, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal"},{"name":"RISE-Health, MAIEC Lab, School of Nursing, University of Porto, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,3]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Godzik, C.M., Carlson, D.D., Pashchenko, O.I., Ballarino, G.A., and Emond, J.A. 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