Kliewer Wendy, Lepore Stephen J
Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, PO Box 842018, Richmond, VA, 23284-2018, USA,
J Youth Adolesc. 2015 Feb;44(2):507-17. doi: 10.1007/s10964-014-0184-x. Epub 2014 Sep 14.
Exposure to violence is associated with elevated levels of sleep problems in adolescence, which contributes to poor mental and physical health and impaired academic performance. However, reasons underlying the associations between exposure to violence and sleep difficulty have not been examined. This study tested a social cognitive processing path model linking experiences of witnessing and directly experiencing community violence and sleep problems. Participants were 362 early adolescents (M age = 12.45 years, SD = 0.59; range 11-14 years; 48.9% male; 51% Latino/a; 34% black) from urban communities enrolled in a middle-school-based intervention study on the east coast of the United States that was designed to reduce the negative effects of exposure to violence. All youth in the current study reported witnessing or directly experiencing community violence. Adolescents completed four school-based assessments over an 18-month period, reporting on their exposure to community violence, sleep problems, intrusive thoughts about and social constraints in talking about violence, and life events. A path model that included both victimization and witnessing violence revealed that wave 1 witnessing violence, but not victimization, was associated with elevated social constraints in talking about violence at wave 2, which was associated with elevated intrusive thoughts at wave 3, which was associated with poor sleep quality at wave 4. Prior levels of all constructs were controlled in the analysis, in addition to life events, single parent household status, children's age and sex, intervention condition, and school. Youth exposed to violence may benefit from help in processing their experiences, thus reducing social constraints in talking about their experiences and associated intrusive thoughts. This is turn may improve sleep outcomes.
遭受暴力与青少年睡眠问题水平升高有关，这会导致身心健康状况不佳以及学业成绩受损。然而，遭受暴力与睡眠困难之间关联的潜在原因尚未得到研究。本研究测试了一个社会认知加工路径模型，该模型将目睹和直接经历社区暴力的经历与睡眠问题联系起来。研究参与者为362名来自城市社区的青少年（平均年龄 = 12.45岁，标准差 = 0.59；年龄范围11 - 14岁；48.9%为男性；51%为拉丁裔；34%为黑人），他们参与了美国东海岸一项以中学为基础的干预研究，该研究旨在减少遭受暴力的负面影响。本研究中的所有青少年都报告目睹或直接经历过社区暴力。青少年在18个月的时间里完成了四项基于学校的评估，报告了他们遭受社区暴力的情况、睡眠问题、关于暴力的侵入性想法以及谈论暴力时的社会限制，还有生活事件。一个同时包括受害经历和目睹暴力的路径模型显示，第一阶段目睹暴力，而非受害经历，与第二阶段谈论暴力时社会限制增加有关，第二阶段社会限制增加又与第三阶段侵入性想法增加有关，第三阶段侵入性想法增加与第四阶段睡眠质量差有关。在分析中，除了生活事件、单亲家庭状况、儿童年龄和性别、干预条件以及学校外，还对所有构念的先前水平进行了控制。遭受暴力的青少年可能会从处理他们的经历的帮助中受益，从而减少谈论他们经历时的社会限制以及相关的侵入性想法。这反过来可能会改善睡眠结果。
