The Onset of Pubertal Development and Objective Sleep: Multigroup Racial/Ethnic and Gender Effects

• In Event: Sleep across the lifecourse

Abstract

Difficulties initiating and maintaining sleep are prevalent in middle to late childhood and pose risk for poorer physical and emotional health (Fricke-Oerkermann et al., 2007; Nixon et al., 2008). More advanced pubertal development has been associated with sleep-wake behaviors (i.e. later bedtimes and shorter sleep duration; Foley et al., 2018). The age of pubertal onset is decreasing (Wang et al., 2020), suggesting the need to examine the puberty-sleep relation at younger ages. Gender and ethnic/racial differences in sleep outcomes are evident, but studies with significant Hispanic representation are limited (Yip et al., 2020). As such, we examined pubertal development in relation to objective sleep in children at the beginning of puberty, and tested whether associations differed by child race and gender.

This racially and socioeconomically diverse sample consisted of 596 twin children (Mage=8.41, SD=.69; 51.7% female; 66.3% White; 33.7% Hispanic) and their primary caregivers. Primary caregivers completed the Pubertal Development Scale (Petersen et al., 1988) and the composite score was used in analyses (Coleman & Coleman, 2002). Children wore actigraph watches on their non-dominant wrist for 7 consecutive days (M= 6.81, SD= .67) to capture sleep quality, duration, and variability. Mixed-model regressions were conducted to examine pubertal development, gender, and their interaction in multigroup analyses (i.e., White (n= 395); Hispanic (n= 201)), controlling for age, BMI, family SES, and vacation (i.e. participated during summer/holiday break).

261 White (68.9%) and 135 Hispanic (77.1%) participants had initiated puberty. The pubertal composite score of the White (M= 1.29, SD= .26) and Hispanic (M= 1.35, SD= .27) groups significantly differed (t=2.72, p<.01). Among White participants, greater pubertal development was associated with longer sleep duration (b= .41, p=.01), higher sleep efficiency (b= 3.19, p< .01), and shorter sleep onset latency (SOL; b=-.16, p=.02). White girls exhibited longer duration (b=.23, p< .01) and higher efficiency (b=1.66, p< .01) compared to White males. White females, but not males, with greater pubertal development demonstrated shorter SOL (b= -.29, p<.001). Among Hispanic youth, greater pubertal development was also associated with longer duration (b= .68, p<.01), higher efficiency (b= 4.61, p=.03), as well as less duration variability (b= -.27, p=.03). Hispanic females had a later sleep midpoint than males (b= .24, p=.02).

Unlike previous research conducted in adolescent populations, children with greater pubertal development had healthier objective sleep. Gender differences were identified such that White females, but not Hispanic females, had better sleep quality and duration compared to each respective male group. These mixed findings call for the continued examination of various demographics on the puberty-sleep relation. The onset of puberty is important, as associations between puberty and sleep may differ across the pubertal transition. Our younger sample may not yet be exposed to environmental factors linked with disrupted sleep in adolescence (i.e., increasing school demands, social media use). The present study may have mostly captured growth in height (i.e., the most common first indicator of pubertal onset), but not other types of pubertal development suggesting the need for further longitudinal work using objective sleep and multiple indicators of puberty.

Authors

• Emma Lecarie, Arizona State University
  Presenting Author

• Leah D Doane, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kathryn Lemery-Chalfant, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author