Negative Peer Ethnic/Racial Interactions and Adolescent Sleep: An Investigation of Bidirectional Associations in Everyday Life

• In Event: Antecedents and Consequences of Sleep Patterns and Ethnic-Racial Discrimination among Ethnically-Racially Diverse Youth

Abstract

Background. Sleep disturbances (e.g., insufficient duration, poor quality) are common among adolescents and have been linked to poor developmental outcomes across physical, psychosocial, academic, and behavioral domains (Shochat et al., 2014). A growing literature has documented the role of poor peer relationships in contributing to adolescents’ sleep disturbances (Tu et al., 2019; Tu & Cai, 2020). Yet, this research has focused primarily on the between-person level associations, without disentangling the temporal directionality in those associations on a daily basis. Moreover, how peer relationships related to ethnicity and race (termed as peer ethnic/racial interactions; or PERIs), such as peer ethnic/racial teasing, discrimination, victimization, are associated with sleep is less understood in the literature. These negative PERIs are particularly relevant for adolescents from ethnically/racially diverse backgrounds (Wang, in press). To fill in these gaps, this study used a daily design to investigate how sleep (assessed both objectively by actigraphy and subjectively by self-reports) and negative PERIs influence one another on a daily basis. In particular, we examined how previous-night sleep was associated with negative PERIs, and how negative PERIs were associated with the sleep that night.

Method. Data were collected from 178 9th graders for two consecutive weeks in the Midwest. The sample includes 51% females (15% Latinx, 43% Blacks, 5% Asian Americans, 5% Native Americans, 21% White, 11% other race/ethnicities). The average completion rate of daily diaries was 89% (SD = 19%). Daily negative PERIs measures included teasing, discrimination, and victimization based on one’s ethnicity/race. Daily sleep was assessed objectively by duration and quality (inversely indicated by wake-minutes-after-sleep-onset; WASO) using Motionlogger actigraph, and subjectively by duration, quality, and night-time disturbance based on self-reports on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (Buysse et al., 1989). Covariates included days in the study, weekdays/weekends, daily social support, caffeine use, exercise, and screen time.

Results. All analyses were conducted in a multilevel SEM framework using Mplus 8 (see Figure 1). Negative PERIs were estimated as a latent factor indicated by peer ethnic/racial teasing, discrimination, and victimization. The bidirectional associations between PERIs and sleep were estimated simultaneously. Each sleep indicator was examined in separate models. We focused on within-person associations that captured bidirectional associations on a daily basis (see Table 1). For objectively measured sleep, we observed a significant link from previous-night sleep to PERIs, such that adolescents reported more negative PERIs when they had shorter actigraphy sleep duration on the previous night. For subjectively measured sleep, we observed a significant link from PERIs to sleep, such that on days when adolescents had more negative PERIs, they reported poorer sleep quality and more night-time disturbances that night.

Conclusions. Findings highlighted the differential associations between negative PERIs and sleep depending on how sleep was assessed: while adolescents’ daily social experiences are susceptible to inadequate sleep, the consequences of negative PERIs are reflected by subjective sleep complaints. These findings highlight the value of assessing sleep using multiple methods and understanding the daily dynamics of adolescents’ social experiences and sleep.

Authors

• Youchuan Zhang, Michigan State University
  Presenting Author

• Yijie Wang, Michigan State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nema Kebbeh, Michigan State University
  Non-Presenting Author