Psychosom Med. 2022 Jun 30. doi: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000001104. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the associations between indices of family socioeconomic status and sleep during adolescence and to examine whether measures of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functioning mediate the observed associations.
METHODS: A total of 350 ethnically diverse adolescents (57% female; mean agewave1 = 16.4, SD = 0.7 years) completed a three-wave longitudinal study in which sleep and cortisol data were collected at two-year time intervals. Sleep duration, latency, and variability was assessed via actigraphy over a period of eight days per study wave. Salivary cortisol was collected across three days per study wave to assess cortisol diurnal slope, area under the curve and the cortisol awakening response. Adolescents’ caregivers reported their education levels, family income, and economic hardship.
RESULTS: A greater family income-to-needs ratio was associated with longer adolescent sleep duration (b = 2.90, p = .023), whereas greater parental education was associated with shorter sleep duration (b = -3.70, p = .030), less sleep latency (b = -0.74, p = .016), and less variability across days (b = -2.06, p = .010). Diurnal cortisol slope statistically mediated the association of parental education with sleep duration (b = -0.48, 95% CI [-1.099, -0.042]), but not the association of income-to-needs ratio with sleep duration.
CONCLUSION: Findings suggest parental education and family resources may have unique impacts upon sleep and HPA axis functioning during the period of adolescence. Future research is needed to examine family and behavioral factors that may underlie SES associations with adolescent sleep and HPA axis functioning.
PMID:35797448 | DOI:10.1097/PSY.0000000000001104
