Sleep duration, handgun carrying, and taking a handgun to school: an analysis of a statewide sample of Florida youth

Prevalence and correlates of handgun carrying and perceived ease of access among adolescents in Florida

OBJECTIVE

Adolescent firearm violence poses a serious public health concern. The aim of this study is to explore correlates of access to firearms and firearm carrying patterns among adolescents in 2022. While previous research has documented correlates and risk factors for firearm carrying, the majority of this research has relied on samples collected prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and recent shifts in national patterns of firearm violence.

METHODS

We analysed data from the 2022 Florida Youth and Substance Use Survey (FYSAS) (N=41 768). Logistic regression models were used to examine associations between demographic, familial, temperamental, and behavioural factors and both ease of perceived firearm access and patterns of firearm carrying.

RESULTS

The results suggest that gender, grade level, race, residential setting, having a parent in the military, delinquency, depression, bullying and substance use are associated with perceived firearm access. In addition, gender, grade level, residential setting, ease of firearm access, delinquency, substance use, and bullying are all associated with firearm carrying.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest a host of demographic features and behavioural factors are associated with both perceived ease of firearm access and patterns of firearm carrying. Implications of these findings for reducing access to firearms is discussed.

Sex Differences in the Associations of mental Health, Suicidality, Screentime, and Sleep: A Mediation Effect Analysis of Sleep Using Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance Survey 2021

Objective: This study was conducted to explore the sex differences in the direct and indirect associations among mental health/suicidality, sleep, and screen time. Methods: Using the 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) data, 9408 participants were included in the analyses. The associations of endogenous variables (mental health and suicidality), exogenous variable (screen time), mediator (sleep), and covariates (demographic features and risky behaviors) were analyzed using the Structural Equation Model and "medsem" package, as well as logistic regression and bootstrapping methods. To explore the sex differences in the mediation effect, the Likelihood Ratio Test was used for the multiple-group analysis to compare the unconstrained model with the mediation path-constrained model. Results: Screen time had a significant negative association with sleep duration (female: β = -.09, p < .001; male: β = -.04, p < .001), positive relations to mental health problems (female: β = .10, p < .001; male: β = .12; p < .001), and suicidality (female: OR: 1.07, 95% CI: 1.02-1.13; male: OR: 1.06, 95% CI: 1.01-1.23). Sleep duration is negatively associated with mental health problems (female: β = -.16, p < .001; male: β = -.14; p < .001) and negatively associated with the likelihood of suicidality (female: .89, 95% CI: .85-.94; male: OR: .84, 95% CI: .79-.90). Furthermore, female adolescents had higher frequencies in mental health problems, higher odds ratio in suicidality, shorter sleep duration, and bigger mediation effects of sleep, compared to their male counterparts. Conclusion: Mental health and suicidality were affected differently by screen time and sleep between female and male adolescents. Future research may continue to explore sex differences and their underlying reasons.

Changes in Restless Sleep, Self-Control, and Alcohol-Related Problems with Police from Late Adolescence to Adulthood

Sleep quality is crucial for healthy adolescent brain development, which has downstream effects on self-control and involvement in risky behaviors, such as alcohol use. While previous studies have found that sleep and facets of self-control are associated with patterns of alcohol use, few have assessed whether these constructs are tied to alcohol-related problems with law enforcement during the transitional period from adolescence to adulthood. The current study uses self-report panel data from ages 16 to 27 from a population-based sample of U.S. youth (N = 956; 36.86% female). The goal of the current study is to assess the association between changes in restless sleep, impulsivity, sensation seeking, and problems with police during or shortly after consuming alcohol from adolescence to adulthood to begin to address this gap in the existing literature. Results from a multivariate latent growth curve model reveal that faster increases in restless sleep and slower declines in impulsivity are associated with slower declines in police contact. Correlated changes between restless sleep, impulsivity, and police contact are slightly greater from ages 16-21 than for ages 22-27, with males showing stronger associations. The reported results suggest that identifying developmental mechanisms between changes in poor sleep, impulsivity, and alcohol use behaviors during this life-course phase will be crucial moving forward to help divert youth away from alcohol-related contact with the police.

Sleep duration, sleep quality, and weapon carrying in a sample of adolescents from Texas

Objectives

Studies are beginning to document an association between sleep duration and a range of adolescent delinquent behaviors, including weapon carrying. However, little is known about whether and to what extent sleep quality - another dimension of sleep for healthy adolescent functioning - is associated with weapon carrying. We address this gap in knowledge by evaluating the role of restless sleep and sleep duration in adolescent weapon carrying.

Methods

We analyze data from a diverse sample of 994 adolescents from Texas, USA collected in 2010. Multivariate logistic regression models estimate the association of sleep duration and restless sleep on weapon carrying after controlling for theoretical covariates and demographic characteristics.

Results

Adolescents sleeping 4 h or less on school nights were more than twice as likely to report carrying a weapon (OR = 2.38, 95% CI = 1.16-4.89, p =.018). Sleeping 5-6 h was associated with higher odds of carrying a weapon, while 6-7 h and 8 or more hours were associated with lower odds; however, all associations were non-significant. Restless sleep was associated with weapon carrying at the bivariate level (Pearson χ2 (3) = 10.56, p =.014), but not at the multivariate (OR = 1.10, 95% CI = 0.91-1.32, p =.299).

Conclusions

Our findings align with previous research demonstrating that sleeping 4 or less hours increases the likelihood of adolescent weapon carrying. Restless sleep appears to play less of a role. Future research should elucidate the longitudinal pathways between sleep duration, sleep quality, and forms of adolescent weapon carrying.

Sleep duration, depressive symptoms, and digital self-harm among adolescents

BACKGROUND

This study examines the relationship between sleep duration, depression, and engagement in a novel cyber behavior, digital self-harm, among adolescents.

METHOD

Logistic regression analyses were conducted using cross-sectional data from the 2019 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey (N = 9,819; 48% male; avg. grade level = 9th grade [SD = 1.9]) to analyze the association between sleep duration and digital self-harm. A Karlson-Holm-Breen (KHB) analysis was used to assess whether depressive symptoms attenuate this association.

RESULTS

Bivariate results indicated that longer sleep duration was associated with lower incidence of digital self-harm. Multivariate results showed that sleep duration was inversely associated with engaging in digital self-harm, net of all covariates. Depressive symptoms attenuated the influence of sleep duration on digital self-harm by 50.72%.

CONCLUSIONS

Both insufficient sleep and depressive symptoms were associated with engagement in digital self-harm among adolescents. Prospective research is needed, however, to confirm this pathway. Practitioners and clinicians should consider discussing digital self-harm with adolescents and parents, especially if adolescents are experiencing poor sleep and depressive symptoms.

Age at first alcohol use and weapon carrying among adolescents: Findings from the 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey

BACKGROUND

Although studies have investigated the association between alcohol use and violent behaviors such as weapon carrying, few studies have examined the association between age at first alcohol use and weapon-carrying among adolescents. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between age at first alcohol use and weapon carrying among adolescents.

METHODS

Data for this study came from the 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey. An analytic sample of 13,442 adolescents aged 14-18 years old (51% female) was analyzed using binary logistic regression. The outcome variable investigated in this study was weapon carrying during the past 30 days, and the main explanatory variable investigated was age at first alcohol use.

RESULTS

Of the 13,442 adolescents, 13.5% carried a weapon during the past 30 days, and 15.4% reported having their first alcoholic drink before age 13. In the multivariable logistic regression, adolescents who reported having alcohol before age 13 had more than double the odds of carrying a weapon when compared to those who never had alcohol before age 13 (AOR = 2.32, p < .001, 95% CI = 1.87-2.89). Other significant factors associated with weapon carrying include male gender, victim of bullying, teen dating violence, sexual violence, suicidal ideation, and history of substance use. Adolescents who self-identified as Black/African American or Hispanic were significantly less likely to carry a weapon when compared to adolescents who self-identified as non-Hispanic White.

CONCLUSION

The findings of this study underscore the importance of developing age appropriate intervention strategies to curb early initiation of alcohol use and weapon carrying among adolescents.

Examining potential risk factors for early age of nicotine vaping initiation in a sample of Florida youth

Previous research has examined risk factors for nicotine vaping in young adults and older adolescents. Even so, significantly less research has examined risk factors for initiating nicotine vaping in early adolescence. This paper addresses this gap in the literature by examining risk factors for initiating nicotine vaping in a sample of middle- and high-school students. In order to do so, we analyze data from the 2019 cohort of the Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey (FYSAS). We employ multinomial logistic regression and logistic regression to examine potential risk factors for early age of nicotine vaping initiation. Our findings reveal that early age of nicotine vaping initiation is associated with cigarette use, alcohol use, having substance using peers, lifetime incidence of arrest, and lifetime incidence of school suspension. In conclusion, our findings reveal that early age of nicotine vaping initiation is associated with other forms of risky behavior in adolescence (i.e., substance use, misbehavior leading to arrest and/or school suspension). We discuss the implications of these findings for future research.

Quality over quantity? Using sibling comparisons to examine relations between sleep quality, sleep duration, and delinquency

RATIONALE

A growing body of research suggests that adolescents with problematic sleep patterns are more likely to engage in externalizing and delinquent behaviors. Few studies, however, have examined the role of between- and within-family effects on this association to establish whether poor sleep is related to delinquency after controlling for familial confounding.

OBJECTIVE

The current study examines the relationship between self-reported restless sleep, sleep duration, and delinquency from ages 16-19 in a population-based sample of U.S. youth.

METHODS

Data from full siblings from the Children and Young Adult sample of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1979) (CNLSY) are analyzed. Negative binomial regression models and sibling comparisons are estimated to assess between- and within-family effects of sleep on delinquency during ages 16-17. Sibling comparison cross-lagged models are then fitted to the data to examine whether sibling differences in sleep are related to sibling differences in changes in delinquency from ages 16-19.

RESULTS

Siblings with higher levels of self-reported restless sleep were more likely to report higher levels of delinquency at ages 16-17, net of observable covariates and unobservable familial confounders. Sibling differences in restless sleep at ages 16-17 were also associated with increases in delinquency at ages 18-19 after controlling for familial confounding and temporal stability in both sleep and delinquent behavior.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings suggest that perhaps sleep quality, rather than sleep duration, should be the primary target for intervention/prevention programming efforts for adolescent delinquency.