The Role of Pubertal Change in Children’s Sleep and Depressive Symptoms

• In Event: Longitudinal Examinations of Biological and Social Contextual Factors: Predictions to Adolescent Anxiety and Depression

Abstract

Approximately 70% of adolescents (ages 13-18) get either insufficient sleep or barely meet the required amount of sleep expected for healthy functioning (Wheaton et al., 2018). In fact, deficient sleep (i.e., poor quality, short duration) is so pervasive for this group that it could be considered an epidemic due to its adverse impact on mental and physical health (Owens, 2015; Shochat et al., 2014). Addressing children’s sleep problems as they transition into adolescence thus represents a critical area of study.
Although extensive research has demonstrated links between pubertal development and internalizing symptoms (e.g., Crockett et al., 2013), the biological changes associated with children’s sleep during puberty (Crowley et al., 2018), which often results in delayed sleep onset (Carskadon et al., 1993), are rarely examined in the context of adolescent mental health problems. Accordingly, the current study sought to assess adolescent sleep duration and variability as mediators of the association between pubertal change and depressive symptoms.
The current study examined data from baseline (48.7% female; Mchild_age=9.91 years, SD=.62), wave 1 (Mchild_age=10.95, SD=.67) and wave 2 (Mchild_age=12.02, SD=.67) of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study (2021, release 4.0). A total of 5949 children had their sleep duration (i.e., total sleep time) and variability (i.e., SD across all nights) recorded at wave 2 with Fitbit watches, which were worn across an average of 13.84 nights (SD=9.9). At both baseline and wave 1, children self-reported on their pubertal development with the Pubertal Development Scale (PDS; Peterson et al., 1988). Residual change scores were calculated by taking the unstandardized residual scores from regressing wave 1 on baseline PDS scores. Children reported on their depressive symptoms at wave 2 using the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach, 1999). Most participants identified as white (52.4%), with another 24.0% identifying as Hispanic/Latinx, 13.4% identifying as Black, 5.9% American Indian/Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and 4.2% as multi-race. The families were economically diverse with 21.5% reporting family incomes of <$25,000 and 6.8% with incomes of >$200,000.
Analyses were conducted using Mplus (v.8.8, Muthén & Muthén, 2022). A mediation model was tested in which residual change in pubertal development predicted depressive symptoms at wave 2 via the separate mediating variables of children’s wave 2 sleep duration and variability (Figure 1). Children’s age, sex, chronotype, body mass index, and family SES were included as covariates (not pictured in Figure 1); model fit for was excellent. Results suggested that the indirect effect (effect=.006, p<.001) linking relative increases in pubertal development to higher levels of depressive symptoms via greater sleep variability was significant. Multi-group analyses testing model differences between boys and girls were non-significant.
This study is one of the first to assess associations between children’s pubertal development, sleep, and depressive symptoms. These results suggest that greater sleep variability (i.e., irregular sleep patterns) plays an integral role in the association between children’s pubertal development and mental health problems in early adolescence. Given the expected changes to children’s sleep during puberty, findings from the current study highlight the importance for addressing issues emerging from this developmental transition.

Author

• Jack S Peltz, SUNY Brockport
  Presenting Author