Peer-perpetrated Discrimination and Adolescents’ Sleep: The Moderating Role of Social Support

• In Event: Poster Session 14
  In Poster Session: PS 14 Topic - Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Abstract

Discrimination is prevalent among adolescents in the United States and it takes a biological toll on adolescents’ health, such as disrupting sleep sufficiency and quality (Yip, 2014). However, there is limited research examining the daily association between discrimination and sleep as well as the daily level protective factors that could mitigate the negative effects of discrimination among adolescents. Using a daily diary approach, the current study examined whether peer-perpetrated discrimination tied to race, sexual minority status, socioeconomic status, and weight influenced adolescents’ daily sleep. In addition, guided by the risk and resilience framework (Masten, 2001), the current study also examined whether daily support from important others in adolescents’ lives (i.e., family members, friends, teachers) would alleviate the detrimental consequences of peer-perpetrated discrimination.
The current study used data from a 14-day daily diary study collected from 164 racially diverse U.S. 9th grade students (40% White, 31% Latino, 6% Black, 11% Asian American, 12% other). Participants were asked whether they were treated with less respect by other students, with potential attributions of race, sexual minority status, SES, and weight. A daily binary peer-perpetrated discrimination variable was created to denote whether the adolescent reported any type of discrimination (occurred=1, not=0). Daily support was assessed with three items related to whether adolescents got “help, advice, or support” from their parent(s), friends, and teachers (Yes=1, No=0). Sleep duration was calculated by taking the difference between bedtime and wake-up time.
Descriptive analyses showed that adolescents reported an average of 0.67 peer-perpetrated discrimination experiences (SD=1.32) over the two weeks (range: 0 to 7 reported experiences across participants). Multilevel analyses were conducted using SAS PROC MIXED. Results showed that, at the within-person level, on days when adolescents experienced peer-perpetrated discrimination, they reported shorter sleep duration that night (b=-0.39, p<.05); at the between-person level, peer-perpetrated discrimination did not significantly predict sleep duration (b=-.27, p=.60). In addition, results revealed significant interaction effects of peer-perpetrated discrimination with teacher (b=-.87, p<.01) and peer support (b=-.69, p<.01) at the within-person level. Simple slope analyses showed that individuals who received teacher support reported longer sleep duration on days when experiencing peer-perpetrated discrimination (b=.54, p<.05; Figure 1a), whereas those who did not receive teacher support showed a trend of shorter sleep duration when experiencing discrimination (b=-.33, p=.10). In contrast to the protective role of teacher support, individuals who received peer support reported shorter sleep duration on days when they experienced discrimination (b=-1.01, p<.01; Figure 1b), while individuals who did not receive friend support only trended to shorter sleep duration when experiencing discrimination (b=-.32, p=.10).
Our results add to the existing literature, suggesting that peer-perpetrated discrimination had negative effects on adolescents’ sleep duration. Our findings also highlight the different roles that teachers and peers play in adolescents’ lives: support from teachers protects adolescents from the negative effects of discrimination whereas support from peers exacerbates the negative effects of peer-perpetrated discrimination. This finding suggests that interventions promoting support from teachers may be developed especially for those students experiencing discrimination.

Authors

• Shanting Chen, University of Florida
  Presenting Author

• Aprile D Benner, University of Texas at Austin
  Non-Presenting Author

• Marci Gleason, University of Texas at Austin
  Non-Presenting Author