Sleep is closely related to physical and mental health problems as well as problem behaviors among adolescents and young adults. Thus, to better understand sleep seems paramount, including how to best measure it. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) is one of the most widely used sleep measures. Some recent psychometric evidence (i.e., inconsistent dimensionality across studies) has called into question the application of this clinically developed measure. The current study sought to rigorously test the dimensionality of the measure, by comparing a psychometric application of it to a clinical application. It also tested correlates of sleep quality measured by the PSQI, including academic achievement, mental health, and substance use (alcohol and drug use) . Data were collected from 820 college students using an online computer-assisted protocol. Results from factor analyses supported a 2-factor solution for the PSQI. Findings from path analyses using scale scores based on the extracted factor structure as the independent variable provided evidence that the psychometric approach worked equally well as the clinical application using the global sleep quality risk score , providing some support for the use of a psychometric approach of the PSQI. Sleep quality scores (both scale and global sleep quality risk scores) were consistently associated with academic achievement, mental health, and substance use problems, thus providing further support on the importance of good sleep for young adults. Public Significance StatementThe current study provides support for the application and use of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), based both on psychometric and clinimetric approaches, in understanding a number of adjustment measures (i.e., GPA, mental health problems, alcohol use, and drug use) among college students. Using the psychometric approach provides a more nuanced understanding of how subscales part of the PSQI vis-à-vis a global risk score are associated with adjustment.

The current study tested the developmental significance of both early adolescent sleep quantity and quality for academic competence and internalizing and externalizing problems over the course of 2 years. As part of an accelerated longitudinal study, data were collected from N = 586 Czech adolescents (M age = 12.34 years, SD = .89, 58.4% female). Data analyses included a series of logistic regressions that controlled for adolescent sex, age, family structure, and socioeconomic status. Findings showed that sleep quality at Wave 1 predicted developmental changes 1 year later (Wave 3) in depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem (OR range = 1.7-1.8) and 2 years later (Wave 5) in externalizing behaviors (OR = 2.6). Importantly, despite the associations observed with Wave 3 anxiety and deviance, Wave 1 sleep quantity was unrelated to subsequent developmental changes in adjustment measures, both 1 and 2 years later. No sleep effects at all were observed on a variety of measures of academic competence. Study findings underscore the developmental significance of sleep and indicate greater salience of sleep quality vis-à-vis sleep quantity. They also replicate some of the observed relationships found in previous longitudinal work on the sleep-mood link but extend the sleep-adolescent adjustment literature in a number of important ways.

Introduction:The current study tested the longitudinal bidirectional links between changes in sleep quality and two measures of internalizing problems, depressive and anxiety symptoms, and whether these links differed between males and females. Methods: Longitudinal data were collected from 570 early adolescents (58.6% female; M age = 12.43 years, SD = 0.66 at Time 1) who were assessed four times over the course of 1.5 years. Results: Cross-lagged panel models were hypothesized and tested the bidirectional links between sleep quality and both depressive and anxiety symptoms; multigroup tests were used to test for sex differences. Sleep quality and developmental changes in sleep quality were negatively associated with developmental changes in depressive symptoms as well as anxiety symptoms over time, and vice versa. These associations did not differ between male and female early adolescents. Conclusions: Study findings provide evidence that the relationship between poor sleep quality and depressive symptoms as well as anxiety symptoms are likely bidirectional and consistently intertwined. Clinicians might consider both problems to better guide case conceptualization and treatment.

The current study examined growth‐to‐growth associations of parental solicitation, knowledge, and peer approval with deviance during early adolescence, using a 4‐wave, 18‐month self‐reported longitudinal data set from 570 Czech early adolescents (58.4% female; Mage = 12.43 years, SD = 0.66 at baseline). Unconditional growth model tests provided evidence of significant changes in the three parenting behaviors and in deviance over time. Multivariate growth model tests showed that declines in maternal knowledge were associated with increases in deviance, while greater increases in parental peer approval were associated with slower increases in deviance. Findings provide evidence of dynamic changes in parental solicitation, knowledge, and peer approval over time, as well as in deviance; additionally, they importantly show how parental knowledge and peer approval covary developmentally with deviance.