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Poster #109 - The Role of Dysfunctional Sleep-Related Beliefs in Adolescent Sleep and Mental Health

Thu, March 21, 9:30 to 10:45am, Baltimore Convention Center, Floor: Level 1, Exhibit Hall B

Integrative Statement

There is extensive evidence documenting that adolescents’ insufficient and poor-quality sleep play a critical role in their psychosocial functioning (Owens et al., 2014; Shochat et al., 2014). One key predictor of adolescent sleep problems is family conflict as family environments marked by high levels of conflict can negatively influence adolescents’ sleep (Dahl & El-Sheikh, 2007; El-Sheikh & Kelly, 2017). In addition, for both adolescents and adults, dysfunctional beliefs about one’s own sleep are associated with poorer quality sleep (Diaz-Morales et al., 2012; Yang et al., 2011). Beyond its role as a predictor in models of sleep, dysfunctional beliefs about sleep might also exert their effects at the contextual level as a moderator, as those dysfunctional beliefs could have the power to not only shape an adolescent’s or parent’s own behavior, but also adversely influence their reactions to others’ behaviors. The current study sought to test this conceptualization by examining a moderated mediation model in which family conflict (the predictor) promotes adolescent anxiety and depressive symptoms (the outcome) by reducing adolescent sleep quality (the mediator), particularly in families with dysfunctional sleep-related beliefs (the moderator).

A total of 193 adolescent (Mage = 15.7 years old, SD = .94; 54.4% female) and parent (Mage = 47.6 years old, SD = 5.4; 80% female) dyads completed baseline and 7-day sleep diary surveys. The majority of adolescents and parents identified as Caucasian (71% and 79% respectively), with another 14% and 14% (respectively) identifying as African American, 8% and 2% (respectively) identifying as multiracial, 3% and 2% (respectively) identifying as Latino/a, 2% and 2% (respectively) identifying as Asian American, and 2% and 1% (respectively) identifying as “other.” Parents reported average annual incomes of $81,600 (SD = $27,800), and 17.6% of families reported incomes equal to or less than $45,000.

To test the moderated mediation models, we employed the PROCESS macro (model 59; Hayes et al., 2018) for SPSS. Both parents and adolescents reported at baseline on their own levels of sleep-related beliefs using the 10-item Dysfunctional Beliefs about Sleep scale (DBAS-10; Espie et al., 2000). Parents reported on the amount of pre-bedtime arguing each evening across the 7-day sleep diary with a 1-item measure. Adolescents provided diary-reported daily sleep quality (4 items) each morning and reported daily depressive/anxiety symptoms (PHQ-4; Löwe et al., 2010) each evening, with scores averaged across all 7 days. Child’s age, gender, diary-reported average daily sleep durations, and family-level socioeconomic status were included as covariates.

Results suggested that adolescent sleep quality mediated the association between parent-child pre-bedtime arguing and adolescents’ anxiety and depressive symptoms. Furthermore, this mediation model was moderated by parents’ dysfunctional sleep-related beliefs. Only in families with parents reporting either average or above-average (+1 SD) levels of dysfunctional beliefs did this mediation model emerge as significant. Our results suggest that parents’ dysfunctional sleep-related cognitions put adolescents at risk for a negative cascade stemming from arguing over bedtime to poor quality sleep and its negative consequences on their mental health.

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