Department of Individual, Family and Community Education, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
Department of Human Development and Family Science, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, USA.
Sleep Health. 2024 Oct;10(5):576-582. doi: 10.1016/j.sleh.2024.06.003. Epub 2024 Jul 25.
Parental interpartner conflict is a highly prevalent form of family risk that is stressful for adolescents with ramifications for their sleep. Multiple studies have demonstrated that adolescents from high-conflict homes are at risk for sleep problems. Building on this literature, we conducted novel analyses and investigated whether exposure to interpartner conflict in adolescence predicts sleep problems in the subsequent developmental period of emerging adulthood.
We used a rigorous four-wave design spanning 8years (collected between 2012-2020). At wave 1, participants were 245 adolescents from diverse backgrounds (M age=15.74years; 67% White/European American, 33% Black/African American; 52% girls). Individuals participated again in their adolescence at wave 2 (M age=16.77) and wave 3 (M age=17.69). Participants returned for wave 4 in emerging adulthood (M age=22.97). Adolescents reported on their parents' interpartner conflict (intense and frequent conflict). Sleep duration (minutes) and quality (efficiency, long wake episodes) were measured using actigraphy.
After controlling for autoregressive effects and several covariates, findings from a structural equation model revealed that greater exposure to parental interpartner conflict in adolescence predicted reduced sleep efficiency and more long wake episodes in emerging adulthood.
Results build on the literature to consider sleep in the family context and are among the first to illustrate that exposure to parental interpartner conflict in adolescence predicts sleep problems in emerging adulthood. Continued investigations into the antecedents of sleep problems in emerging adulthood may benefit from considering past exposure to family risk.
父母间的伴侣冲突是一种普遍存在的家庭风险形式，对青少年来说具有压力，会影响他们的睡眠。多项研究表明，来自高冲突家庭的青少年有睡眠问题的风险。在此基础上，我们进行了新的分析，研究了青少年时期暴露于伴侣冲突是否会预测随后成年早期的睡眠问题。
我们使用了严格的四波设计，跨越 8 年（2012-2020 年收集）。在第 1 波，参与者是来自不同背景的 245 名青少年（平均年龄=15.74 岁；67%为白种人/欧洲裔美国人，33%为黑种人/非裔美国人；52%为女孩）。个人在青春期再次参加第 2 波（平均年龄=16.77 岁）和第 3 波（平均年龄=17.69 岁）。参与者在成年早期（平均年龄=22.97 岁）返回第 4 波。青少年报告了他们父母之间的伴侣冲突（激烈和频繁的冲突）。使用活动记录仪测量睡眠时间（分钟）和质量（效率、长觉醒时间）。
在控制自回归效应和几个协变量后，结构方程模型的结果表明，青少年时期暴露于父母间的伴侣冲突越多，成年早期的睡眠效率越低，长觉醒时间越多。
这些结果扩展了家庭背景下睡眠的文献，并首次表明青少年时期暴露于父母间的伴侣冲突会预测成年早期的睡眠问题。对成年早期睡眠问题的前因进行进一步研究，可能受益于考虑过去家庭风险的暴露情况。
