A daily diary study of sleep chronotype among Mexican-origin adolescents and parents: Implications for adolescent behavioral health

Abstract

The current study used daily assessments of sleep to examine stability and change in sleep chronotype in adolescents and their parents. The study assessed adolescent sleep chronotype according to age, gender, and parent chronotype, and evaluated its associations with emotional and behavioral problems in youth. Participants included of 417 Mexican American adolescents (Mage = 16.0 years, Range = 13.9–20.0) and 403 caregivers, who reported bed and wake times daily for 2 consecutive weeks at two time points spaced 1 year apart. In addition, adolescents completed established self-report questionnaires of emotional and behavioral problems. Chronotype was computed as the midsleep point from bed to wake time on free days, correcting for sleep debt accumulated across scheduled days. Multilevel modeling showed a curvilinear association between adolescent age and chronotype, with a peak eveningness observed between ages 16 to 17. Adolescent and parent chronotypes were contemporaneously correlated, but each was only moderately stable over the 1-year period. Later adolescent chronotype was contemporaneously associated with more substance use in all adolescents. Individual development and the family context shape sleep chronotype in adolescents and parents. Sleep chronotype is implicated in adolescent behavioral health.

One year later: longitudinal effects of flexible school start times on teenage sleep and subjective psychological outcomes

“…Alternatively -or in addition -the flexible system might have compensated a potential deterioration in sleep with increasing age or adolescence [57,58] and the absence of a net change in sleep between all time points is actually a success as it prevented a worsening. Longitudinal observational data, however, are unfortunately not suited to answer this question.…”

Biological clock vs Social clock conflict in Adolescents

“…During the adolescent years, it is the student's natural tendency to attain alertness in the later period of the day and remain awake until late at night, making them more likely an evening type individual. Evening type is associated with better attention (Bai et al, 2021). The performance of the adolescents also improves later in the day (Hansen et al, 2005;Hahn et al, 2007;West et al, 2011).…”

As Time Goes By: Effects of Basal Chronotype and School Timing on Chronotype Development During Adolescence

“…chronotype) shows variability among individuals 2,3 . Chronotype has genetic basis [4][5][6] , but it also depends on other factors, such as age [7][8][9][10][11][12] , light exposure 2,13,14 , and cultural and social cues [15][16][17] . Consistently, individuals' chronotype ranges on a continuum between early and late types and can be assessed by evaluating behavioral [18][19][20] or physiological rhythms [21][22][23] , as well as by using easy, reliable and standardized questionnaires.…”

“…Although adolescents' chronotype is particularly late [7][8][9][10][11][12] , secondary school starts very early in the morning all around the world 39 . This contrast between biological timing and social obligations is proposed to be the main cause of short SD on weekdays (SDw) and high SJL during adolescence 33,34 .…”

“…Although it has been well established that chronotypes become progressively delayed until the end of adolescence [7][8][9][10][11][12] , whether and how this developmental effect is modulated by a social cue as school timing needs further investigation.…”