Personal and social resources in the context of adolescent sleep

Abstract

Objective

The existing literature has focused little on the health-promoting role of resources for sleep. Mainly risk factors have been highlighted regarding mental health in general. Moreover, for the vulnerable age group of adolescents, resources and their relation to sleep have hardly been explored. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the predictive role of personal/social resources for the likelihood of having chronic sleep problems in adolescents.

Methods and measures

A sample of n = 131 adolescents (M = 14.31 years, SD = 1.84) completed the Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children and the Questionnaire to Assess Resources for Children and Adolescents at two measurement points about 8 months apart.

Results

Binomial logistic regressions controlling for age and sex revealed that higher levels of personal and social resources were associated with a lower likelihood of having chronic sleep problems. Especially optimism and school integration were associated with not experiencing chronic sleep problems.

Conclusion

For the first time, this study highlighted multiple resources and their health-promoting role in adolescent sleep. Both personal and social resources seem to be relevant for preventing adolescents from chronic sleep problems. Prevention and intervention programs for sleep disorders in teenagers should especially promote optimism and school integration.

Keywords:

• Resources
• sleep disturbances
• sleep problems
• adolescence
• prevention

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Author contributorship

Most parts of the paper were written by Anika Werner. The study was designed and executed by Maren-Jo Kater. Arnold Lohaus and Angelika A. Schlarb mainly designed the study and supervised the data collection process. Denny Kerkhoff contributed advice on statistical power and computed the post-hoc power analyses. Suggestions for additional writing and the revision of the paper for submission were provided by Maren-Jo Kater, Arnold Lohaus, Denny Kerkhoff, and Angelika A. Schlarb.

Ethics approvals

The current study was approved by the ethics committee of Bielefeld University (approval number: EUB2017-203).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the German Research Foundation under Grant LO 337/30-1 and SCHL 1909/8-1.