The Daily Impact of Discrimination on Sleep/Wake Problems Among Diverse Adolescents

• In Event: Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: PS 10 Topic - Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Abstract

Introduction. Research documents the pernicious effects of discrimination on adolescent physical, psychological, behavioral, and academic domains (Hughes et al., 2016; Schmitt et al., 2014). Sleep is not immune to the negative impact of discrimination for adolescents, young adults, and middle-aged adults (see Slopen et al., 2016 for a review). However, existing research relies primarily on cross-sectional data (Huynh & Gillen-O’Neel, 2016; Majeno et al., 2018; Priest et al., 2020); how daily experiences of discrimination are associated with same-day changes in sleep is less clear. Building upon recent intensive longitudinal research focusing on discrimination and sleep (Fuller-Rowell et al., 2020; Goosby et al., 2018), this study examines how discrimination impacts sleep/wake problems, operationalized as sleep disturbance and daytime dysfunction, among ethnically/racially diverse adolescents.

Method. The sample consists of 350 adolescents (Mage = 14.27, SD = .61; 67% female; 41% Asian, 22% Black, and 37% Latinx; 24% multiethnic/racial) recruited from five public high schools in the northeastern United States. Participants completed an online demographic survey and daily diaries each night before going to bed for 14 consecutive days. Daily discrimination was assessed using the Everyday Discrimination scale (Williams et al., 1997). Given the low frequency of daily discrimination, the variable was dichotomized (0 = no discrimination, 1 = discrimination, M = .09, SD = .05). Next, adolescents were dichotomized into two non-overlapping groups based on whether they reported any discriminatory incidents over the 14-day study: No Discrimination Group (n = 196) and Discrimination Group (n = 154). The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI; Buysse et al., 1989) subscales were modified to assess daily sleep disturbance and daytime dysfunction. Five covariates were included in the analyses: (1) gender, (2) ethnicity/race, (3) multiethnic/racial status, (4) when adolescents reported discrimination (weekdays or weekends); and (5) whether adolescents reported multiple discriminatory incidents. To isolate the effects of discrimination on daily sleep/wake problems, data were structured so that the day adolescents reported a discriminatory incident was coded as day T, the three prior days as T-3, T-2, T-1, and the two subsequent days as T+1, T+2. Latent growth curve models (Grimm & Ram, 2012) examined trajectories of sleep/wake problems.

Results. This study elucidates how daily discrimination interrupts trajectories of sleep/wake problems among diverse adolescents. Approximately 44% of the adolescents in this study reported at least one discriminatory incident over the 14 days. On days in which adolescents encountered discriminatory incidents, they experienced higher levels of same-day sleep/wake problems (Figure 1), while adolescents reporting no discriminatory incidents experienced no changes in same-day sleep/wake problems in the six-day period (from T-3 to T+2; Figure 1). On days when they encountered discrimination, multiethnic/racial (compared to monoethnic/racial) adolescents reported greater same-day sleep disturbance (Table 1), yet steeper decreases in sleep disturbance and daytime dysfunction suggesting stronger impact coupled with faster return to baseline levels. Contrasting sleep/wake problem trajectories before and after discriminatory incidents, this study contributes uniquely to the literature by illustrating the immediate impact of, and recovery from, discrimination for minority adolescents’ sleep patterns.

Authors

• Mingjun Xie, Beijing Normal University
  Presenting Author

• Tiffany Yip, Fordham University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Heining Cham, Fordham University
  Non-Presenting Author