Adolescent sleep disparities: sex and racial/ethnic differences

During adolescence, significant changes occur in sleep (eg, decreased sleep duration and increased sleep problems). To date, few studies have examined whether self-reported sleep duration differences exist between races/ethnicities in early adolescence (ages 11-14 years).

This study compared sexes and race/ethnicity groups on self-reported sleep duration in a large (n = 1543; 48.9% boys) racially/ethnically diverse (62.7% White, 23.7% Hispanic/Latino, 10.4% African American, and 3.2% Asian) sample of young adolescents (mean age, 12.31) drawn from local middle schools.

A 2-way analysis of variance revealed that there was a trend for a significant sex effect (P = .067, partial χ² = .002), with boys reporting more sleep than girls and significant race/ethnicity effects (P < .001, partial χ² = .012), with Hispanic and African American students reporting shorter sleep duration than White and Asian students. The interaction between sex × race/ethnicity was significant (P = .014, partial χ² = .002), with post hoc tests revealing that Hispanic males demonstrated significantly shorter sleep duration than White and Asian males and African American females demonstrating significantly shorter sleep duration than White females.

Given the literature showing short sleep duration is related to various negative health outcomes and all-cause mortality, more research is needed to determine the factors involved in these disparities. Adolescent sleep disparities: sex and racial/ethnic differences.