The Role of School Racial Composition on Sleep & Discrimination Over Time

• In Event: Sleep in Adolescence: The Importance of Family and School Contexts

Abstract

Racial disparities in sleep among U.S. minority adolescents have been found to be mediated by discrimination (Yip et al., 2020; Fuller-Rowell et al., 2017). Despite research suggesting that social contexts influence sleep and discrimination, there is a dearth of research examining how school contexts impact changes in sleep and discrimination over the course of high school. As minority adolescents continue to make up a significant portion of the ever-growing diversity in the U.S., it is important to explore underlying factors that influence their sleep patterns, especially since adolescents remain largely susceptible to sleep-related health consequences (U.S. Census Bureau, 2017; Galvan, 2020; Kansagra, 2020). The current study aims to investigate concurrent and longitudinal associations between Asian, Black, and Latinx adolescents’ sleep and discrimination experiences, considering the moderating role of school ethnic/racial composition. Methods: Participants consist of a diverse sample of adolescents in the 9th-12th grades (Y1: n = 329; female = 70%; Asian (42%), Black (21%), and Latinx (37%); Y2: n = 237, Y3: n = 185, Y4: n = 107) from five public high schools located in a large, urban city in the northeastern United States. On average, participants were 14.72 years old (ranging from 13.75 to 17.40; sd = 0.54). Data were collected at the beginning and end of every school year for four consecutive years. Participants self-reported sleep duration, quality, and disturbance using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI; Buysse et al., 1989) and the Everyday Discrimination Scale (EDS; Williams et al., 1997) to report discriminatory experience. The racial composition of schools was calculated using Simpson’s Diversity Index and data from the DOE (Simpson, 1949; ▁x= 0.47, sd = 0.14). Results: On average, Black and Asian youth reported a decline in sleep duration, whereas Latinx youth reported an increase across four years. Reports also suggest a decline in sleep disturbances for Asians, an increase for Blacks, and stability at low levels for Latinx youth (Fig 1). Black youth reported increases in discrimination, whereas Asian youth reported decreases in discrimination across the four years. Latinx youth reports of discrimination remained relatively stable over time (Fig 2). Higher levels of everyday discrimination was associated with greater disturbances across all four years, respectively (r = .21, .14, .18, .06, p < .001) and lower levels of duration (r = -.19, -.19, -.18, -.06, p < .001). Furthermore, correlations were found between participants’ attended school and reports of everyday discrimination for Years 2 & 3, respectively (r = .18, .26, p <.001). The presentation will include additional analyses such as latent growth curves to model trajectories of sleep and discrimination, and parallel process latent growth curve models that will investigate the association between sleep and discrimination trajectories over time. Finally, school racial/ethnic composition will be included in models as moderators of sleep and discrimination trajectories, and their association over time. The current study contributes to research on racial sleep disparities among minority youth and has implications on the possible role of school racial composition.

Authors

• Kyle Lorenzo, Fordham University
  Presenting Author

• Jillianne Fowle, Fordham University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ye Feng, Fordham University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Tiffany Yip, Fordham University
  Non-Presenting Author