Violence exposure, sleep disturbance, and poor academic performance in middle school

Perceived School Climate and Chinese Adolescents' Suicidal Ideation and Suicide Attempts: The Mediating Role of Sleep Quality

BACKGROUND

School factors play important roles in adolescent suicide. However, little is known about how school climate is associated with adolescent suicide. This study examined the relationship between perceived school climate and adolescent suicidal ideation and suicide attempts, and whether these relations were explained by adolescent sleep quality.

METHODS

A total of 1529 Chinese adolescents (mean age = 14.74 years; 52% boys) participated in the study. They provided self-report data on control variables, perceived school climate, sleep quality, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts.

RESULTS

After controlling for sex, age, family structure, socioeconomic status, and parent-adolescent attachment, we found that perceived school climate negatively predicted adolescent suicidal ideation (odds ratio [OR] = 0.66, p < .001) and suicide attempts (OR = 0.72, p < .001). Moreover, perceived school climate positively predicated adolescent sleep quality (β = 0.13, p < .001), which in turn, negatively predicted adolescent suicidal ideation (OR = 0.75, p < .001) and suicide attempts (OR = 0.76, p < .001).

CONCLUSION

These findings, although cross-sectional, indicate that perceived school climate plays an important role in adolescent suicidality. Moreover, the relation between perceived school climate and adolescent suicidality was largely mediated by adolescent sleep quality.

Sleep Duration and Area-Level Deprivation in Twins

STUDY OBJECTIVES

We used quantitative genetic models to assess whether area-level deprivation as indicated by the Singh Index predicts shorter sleep duration and modifies its underlying genetic and environmental contributions.

METHODS

Participants were 4,218 adult twin pairs (2,377 monozygotic and 1,841 dizygotic) from the University of Washington Twin Registry. Participants self-reported habitual sleep duration. The Singh Index was determined by linking geocoding addresses to 17 indicators at the census-tract level using data from Census of Washington State and Census Tract Cartographic Boundary Files from 2000 and 2010. Data were analyzed using univariate and bivariate genetic decomposition and quantitative genetic interaction models that assessed A (additive genetics), C (common environment), and E (unique environment) main effects of the Singh Index on sleep duration and allowed the magnitude of residual ACE variance components in sleep duration to vary with the Index.

RESULTS

The sample had a mean age of 38.2 y (standard deviation [SD] = 18), and was predominantly female (62%) and Caucasian (91%). Mean sleep duration was 7.38 h (SD = 1.20) and the mean Singh Index score was 0.00 (SD = 0.89). The heritability of sleep duration was 39% and the Singh Index was 12%. The uncontrolled phenotypic regression of sleep duration on the Singh Index showed a significant negative relationship between area-level deprivation and sleep length (b = -0.080, P < 0.001). Every 1 SD in Singh Index was associated with a ∼4.5 min change in sleep duration. For the quasi-causal bivariate model, there was a significant main effect of E (b(0E) = -0.063; standard error [SE] = 0.30; P < 0.05). Residual variance components unique to sleep duration were significant for both A (b(0Au) = 0.734; SE = 0.020; P < 0.001) and E (b(0Eu) = 0.934; SE = 0.013; P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Area-level deprivation has a quasi-causal association with sleep duration, with greater deprivation being related to shorter sleep. As area-level deprivation increases, unique genetic and nonshared environmental residual variance in sleep duration increases.

Risk Factors for and Behavioral Consequences of Direct Versus Indirect Exposure to Violence

Research suggests that direct exposure (personal victimization) and indirect exposure (witnessing or hearing about the victimization of a family member, friend, or neighbor) to violence are correlated. However, questions remain about the co-occurrence of these phenomena within individuals. We used data on 1915 youths (with an average age of 12 years at baseline) from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods to examine this issue. Results indicated that youths who tended to be personally victimized were also likely to witness violence; conversely, youths who disproportionately witnessed violence were relatively unlikely to experience personal victimization. In addition, direct and indirect exposures to violence were associated with subsequent adverse outcomes in similar ways. The key distinguishing factor was, rather, the cumulative level of violence (both direct and indirect) to which youths were exposed.

Longitudinal relations between parent-child conflict and children's adjustment: the role of children's sleep

Sleep was examined as a process variable in relations between verbal and physical parent-child conflict and change in children's internalizing and externalizing symptoms over time. Participants were 282 children at T1 (M age = 9.44 years; 48% girls), 280 children at T2 (M age = 10.41 years), and 275 children at T3 (M age = 11.35 years). Children reported on parent-child conflict, sleep was assessed with actigraphy, and parents reported on children's internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Autoregressive effects for sleep and internalizing and externalizing symptoms were controlled to examine change over time. Supportive of intervening processes, physical parent-child conflict at T1 and increased change in internalizing and externalizing symptoms at T3 were indirectly related through their shared association with reduced sleep continuity (efficiency, long wake episodes) at T2. Findings build on a small but growing literature and highlight the importance of considering the role of sleep in relations between family conflict and child development.

The Relationship of Adverse Childhood Experiences to PTSD, Depression, Poly-Drug Use and Suicide Attempt in Reservation-Based Native American Adolescents and Young Adults

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with numerous risk behaviors and mental health outcomes among youth. This study examines the relationship between the number of types of exposures to ACEs and risk behaviors and mental health outcomes among reservation-based Native Americans. In 2011, data were collected from Native American (N = 288; 15-24 years of age) tribal members from a remote plains reservation using an anonymous web-based questionnaire. We analyzed the relationship between six ACEs, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, physical and emotional neglect, witness to intimate partner violence, for those <18 years, and included historical loss associated symptoms, and perceived discrimination for those <19 years; and four risk behavior/mental health outcomes: post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, depression symptoms, poly-drug use, and suicide attempt. Seventy-eight percent of the sample reported at least one ACE and 40 % reported at least two. The cumulative impact of the ACEs were significant (p < .001) for the four outcomes with each additional ACE increasing the odds of suicide attempt (37 %), poly-drug use (51 %), PTSD symptoms (55 %), and depression symptoms (57 %). To address these findings culturally appropriate childhood and adolescent interventions for reservation-based populations must be developed, tested and evaluated longitudinally.

Exposure to violence, social cognitive processing, and sleep problems in urban adolescents

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.

Advancing a biopsychosocial and contextual model of sleep in adolescence: a review and introduction to the special issue

Sleep problems in adolescence have been identified as an international public health issue. Over the past few decades, notable advances have been made in our understanding of the patterns and consequences of sleep in adolescence. Despite these important gains, there is much about the role of sleep in adolescence that remains to be understood. This Special Issue brings together studies that examine sleep as it specifically pertains to adolescent development and adjustment. In this introductory article, we argue for the importance of grounding the study of sleep and adolescence in developmental science and a developmental psychopathology framework. First, a review of the literature is used to outline a biopsychosocial and contextual model of sleep in adolescence. Second, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is used as an exemplar of the proposed model given the pervasiveness of sleep problems among youth with ADHD and the likelihood that sleep problems and ADHD symptoms are interconnected in complex ways. Finally, a brief introduction to the empirical articles included in the Special Issue is provided, with particular attention given to how these articles fit within the proposed biopsychosocial and contextual model. Along with the framework proposed in this article, the studies included in this Special Issue advance the current literature and point to critical directions for future research.

Understanding of School Related Factors Associated with Emotional Health and Bullying Behavior among Jordanian Adolescents

BACKGROUND

Students emotional health and bullying behavior are receiving greater attention worldwide due to their long-term effects on students' health. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between perceived school climate, peer support, teacher support, school pressure and emotional health and bullying among adolescent school students in Jordan.

METHODS

A cross-sectional descriptive design was used to recruit a sample of 1166 in-school adolescents in Amman between November 2013 and January 2014. A multi-stage cluster sampling technique was used to select respondents and Health Behavior in School Aged Children questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data were analyzed using Pearson Correlation to detect relationships among study variables.

RESULTS

Significant correlations (P value was ≤.05) were found between school climate including teacher and peer support and emotional health and bullying behavior of school students. School pressure was not correlated significantly with emotional health and bullying.

CONCLUSION

Study findings emphasize the importance of school related factors in influencing students' emotional health and bullying behavior. This indicates that the issue of bullying and emotional health of students in Jordanian schools requires further attention, both for future research and preventive intervention.

Socioemotional Adjustment as a Mediator of the Association between Exposure to Community Violence and Academic Performance in Low-Income Adolescents

OBJECTIVE

This study examines whether exposure to community violence is indirectly related to academic performance through anxious/depressed symptoms and delinquent behaviors.

METHODS

Three hundred eighteen mothers and adolescents who participated in a longitudinal investigation were interviewed when adolescents were age 10, 14, and 16.

RESULTS

Community violence exposure at age 14 was significantly related to anxious/depressed symptoms and delinquent behaviors. Delinquent behaviors (but not anxious/depressed symptoms) were significantly associated with academic performance at age 16. Exposure to community violence was indirectly related to academic performance through delinquent behaviors. There was no significant indirect effect of exposure to community violence on academic performance through anxious/depressed symptoms. Covariates included sociodemographics and exposure to child abuse. Age 10 anxious/depressed symptoms, age 10 delinquent behaviors, and age 14 academic performance were also included in the model to control for preexisting differences in socioemotional adjustment and academic performance.

CONCLUSIONS

Results suggest that exposure to community violence may initiate a cascade of problems that spread from behavior problems to declines in academic performance. Our results highlight the need for schools to consider exposure to community violence as one form of trauma and to transform in ways that make them more trauma-sensitive. The use of trauma-sensitive practices that address the effects of violence exposure on youth may help limit the progression of adverse effects from delinquent behavior to other domains of functioning.