The Effects of Sleep Disruption on Adolescent Well-Being

University Of Cincinnati Main Campus, Cincinnati OH

Investigators

Abstract

SES-1121560 David J. Maume University of Cincinnati ABSTRACT "The Effects of Sleep Disruption on Adolescent Well-Being" At a time when young people become increasingly aware of life's challenges and begin to ponder their adult futures, they are chronically sleep-deprived and struggle with threats to their health in the forms of substance use, depression, and weight gain. Medical research focuses on the biological causes of adolescent sleep disruption (i.e., going to sleep later because of the decline in melatonin that accompanies puberty), but rarely considers youths' lives in context as a risk factor for sleep and health outcomes. Social scientists emphasize how support from,and connections to, family, school and peers reduce the incidence of deviance and distress among youths, but ignore the potential mediating effect of disrupted sleep on adolescent well-being. Further, medical researchers and social scientists recognize that sleep patterns and health outcomes mutually influence each other, but the preponderance of cross-sectional studies precludes any determination of causal primacy in the sleep-health association among adolescents. This study integrates the contributions from social scientists and sleep researchers in understanding sleep and adolescent functioning, while also addressing the limitations of both literatures. Using the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD, a national longitudinal study of youths), this study will examine changes in sleep habits, obesity, depression, and substance abuse as youths transition from elementary to middle school. In addition to developmental measures, the SECCYD has extensive measures of social support from key actors in youths' lives, which is recognized by both sets of researchers as important for healthy sleep, and physical and mental health. Using multivariate regression models, three research questions are tested in this project: 1) Relative to youths' biological development, how strongly do social support measures predict changes in sleep habits between elementary school and age 15? 2) Do problems in sleeping increase the reported incidence of depression, substance use, and obesity in youths, or does the emergence of these health problems disrupt sleep? 3) Because boys and girls develop at different rates and live different lives at home, at school, at work and among peers, do the pathways predicting healthy sleep and physical and mental well-being vary by gender? The results of this study will inform sleep research on the relative importance of the social context of youths' lives in shaping and altering sleep habits. It will inform social science research that ignores how sleep habits affect youths' lives and adolescent health. Both sets of researchers will benefit from the results of a longitudinal study examining gender differences in effects of daily stressors and support on teen well-being. Broader Impact The results of this study will address the cost and delivery of health care to teens. Since the medical community bases its treatment modalities on research findings, a study which points to the broader context of youths' lives as important antecedents of sleep and functioning (and whether these influences vary by gender), physicians may better identify youths who would benefit from less-invasive counseling to improve youths' live and avoid the more costly and invasive surgery and drug treatments for sleep and health problems. Furthermore, since adult dysfunction often originates in adolescence, isolating and arresting the causes of sleep and health problems among teens will reduce the incidence of these problems later in life, lowering the total size of the nation's health care bill.