Department of Human Development and Family Science, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, United States; Youth Development Institute, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, United States.
Department of Human Development and Family Science, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, United States; Youth Development Institute, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, United States.
Sleep Health. 2023 Aug;9(4):503-511. doi: 10.1016/j.sleh.2023.03.005. Epub 2023 Jun 1.
Youth raised in stressful environments are at increased risk for developing impulsive traits, which are a robust precursor of problem behaviors. Sleep may mediate the link between stress and problem behaviors as it is both sensitive to stress and essential for neurocognitive development underlying behavioral control during adolescence. The default mode network (DMN) is a brain network implicated in stress regulation and sleep. Yet, it is poorly understood how individual differences in resting-state DMN moderate the effect of stressful environments on impulsivity via sleep problems.
Three waves of data spanning 2 years were obtained from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study, a national longitudinal sample of 11,878 children (M at baseline = 10.1; 47.8% female). Structural equation modeling was used to test (a) the mediating role of sleep at T3 in the link between stressful environments at baseline and impulsivity at T5 and (b) the moderation of this indirect association by baseline levels of within-DMN resting-state functional connectivity.
Sleep problems, shorter sleep duration, and longer sleep latency significantly mediated the link between stressful environments and youth impulsivity. Youth with elevated within-DMN resting-state functional connectivity showed intensified associations between stressful environments and impulsivity via shorter sleep duration.
Our findings suggest that sleep health can be a target for preventive intervention and thereby mitigate the link between stressful environments and increased levels of youth impulsivity.
在压力环境中成长的年轻人患冲动特质的风险增加，冲动特质是行为问题的一个强有力的前兆。睡眠可能在压力和行为问题之间起中介作用，因为它对压力敏感，是青少年行为控制的神经认知发展所必需的。默认模式网络（DMN）是一个与压力调节和睡眠有关的大脑网络。然而，人们对静息状态 DMN 中的个体差异如何通过睡眠问题来调节压力环境对冲动性的影响知之甚少。
利用青少年大脑与认知发展研究（一项全国性的纵向 11878 名儿童样本）的 3 个为期 2 年的数据波次，采用结构方程模型检验了（a）基线时的压力环境与第 5 次随访时的冲动性之间的关联，以及第 3 次随访时的睡眠在其中的中介作用；（b）DMN 内静息状态功能连接的基线水平对这种间接关联的调节作用。
睡眠问题、睡眠时间较短和睡眠潜伏期较长显著中介了基线时的压力环境与青少年冲动性之间的关联。DMN 内静息状态功能连接较高的青少年，通过睡眠时间较短，表现出与压力环境之间更强的关联。
我们的研究结果表明，睡眠健康可以作为预防干预的目标，从而减轻压力环境与青少年冲动性增加之间的联系。
