Sleep Profiles Among Ethnically-Racially Minoritized Adolescents: Associations with Sociocultural Experiences and Developmental Outcomes.

OBJECTIVE

This study used latent profile analyses to (1) identify heterogeneous patterns of sleep profiles; (2) examine how discrimination was related to sleep profiles; and (3) investigate how developmental outcomes varied across sleep profiles among ethnically-racially minoritized adolescents.

METHOD

Participants were 350 ethnically-racially minoritized adolescents (69% female; 22% Black-African American, 41% Asian American, and 37% Latinx; M = 14.27 years old, SD = 0.61) completed self-reported presurvey measures of everyday discrimination, ethnic-racial discrimination, and self-reported post-survey measures of depressive symptoms, somatic symptoms, self-esteem, and rumination. Objectively and subjectively measured sleep were assessed utilizing a short-term longitudinal (i.e., two-week) design, where adolescents wore a wrist actigraph and completed daily diaries for 14 consecutive days.

RESULTS

Drawing on multiple objectively and subjectively measured sleep indicators, three profiles were identified: Nighttime Sleeper (76.57%), Disrupted Sleeper (14.29%), and Daytime Sleeper (9.14%). Adolescents experiencing higher levels of ethnic-racial discrimination were more likely to be characterized in the Disrupted Sleeper, relative to the Nighttime Sleeper profile. Compared with Asian and Latinx Americans, Black adolescents were more likely to be in the Daytime Sleeper, relative to the Nighttime Sleeper profile. Those in the Disrupted Sleeper profile exhibited the worst developmental outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings inform clinical interventions focusing on sleep experiences, especially as they relate to protective processes for coping with discrimination. Clinical efforts (e.g., sleep education or therapy to develop routines for adaptive napping) may be beneficial to facilitating healthy sleep behaviors and mitigating sleep disturbances, which in turn, improve developmental well-being among ethnically-racially minoritized adolescents.