Short-term prospective and reciprocal relations between social anxiety symptoms and sleep quality among community-recruited adolescents

Research conducted with socially anxious youth suggests that there is an increased risk for poor sleep quality; however, this link is not consistent across the few studies and there is evidence to suggest that poor sleep quality may increase the risk for elevated social anxiety symptoms. The present study investigates both prospective and reciprocal associations between levels of self-reported social anxiety and global sleep quality while also distinguishing between within-person and between-person variations in these associations.

Community-recruited adolescents from the United States (N = 71; M_age=16.04, SD = 1.08; 64.8% girls; 80.3% White) completed a battery of questionnaires across three time-points within a six-month period; each wave occurred three months apart. A random-intercepts cross-lagged panel model was used for the analysis.

Findings indicated a positive relation between social anxiety and poor sleep quality at both within- and between-person levels. Higher levels of social anxiety were associated with poorer sleep quality three months later, but the reverse relation was not observed.

These findings provide evidence supporting the link between elevated social anxiety symptoms and future sleep problems among adolescents and lay groundwork for investigation of mechanisms driving this link. Findings suggests a need to screen for and treat sleep problems in socially anxious youth.