Perceived Discrimination and Mexican-Origin Young Adults’ Sleep Duration and Variability: The Moderating Role of Cultural Orientations

Abstract

Perceived ethnic discrimination is central to the experiences of Latino young adults, yet we know little about the ways in which and the conditions under which ethnic discrimination during adolescence relates to Latino young adults’ sleep patterns. Using a sample of 246 Mexican-origin young adults (Mage = 21.11, SD = 1.54; 50% female), the current study investigated the longitudinal links between perceived ethnic discrimination and both sleep duration and night-to-night variability in duration, while also examining the moderating roles of Anglo and Mexican orientations in the associations. Results revealed that perceived discrimination predicted greater sleep variability, and this link was not moderated by cultural orientations. The relation between perceived discrimination and hours of sleep, however, was moderated by Anglo and Mexican orientations. Individuals with high Anglo and Mexican orientations (bicultural) and those with only high Mexican orientations (enculturated), showed no association between discrimination and hours of sleep. Individuals with low Anglo and Mexican orientations (marginalized) displayed a positive association, whereas those with high Anglo and low Mexican orientations (acculturated) displayed a negative association. Results suggest that discrimination has long term effects on sleep variability of all Mexican-origin young adults, regardless of cultural orientations; however, for sleep duration, bicultural and enculturated orientations are protective.

Racial Disparities in Sleep: Associations With Discrimination Among Ethnic/Racial Minority Adolescents

“…Scores were summed each day (range = 0–5). Consistent with other research employing daily diary methods daily discrimination was a relatively low‐frequency event ( M = 0.14, SD = 0.48; Goosby et al., ; Seaton & Douglass, ; Torres & Ong, ; Zeiders et al., ); therefore, discrimination was dichotomized to indicate whether the adolescent experienced any of the above discriminatory experiences that day (0 = no discrimination, 1 = discrimination, M = 0.09, SD = 0.29). To maintain a temporal ordering between discrimination and sleep, the analyses investigate the same‐day effects of discrimination on sleep (i.e., today's discrimination predicting tonight's sleep).…”

“…This study contributes to a growing empirical (Goosby et al., ; Huynh & Gillen‐O'Neel, ; Slopen & Williams, ; Slopen et al., ; Zeiders et al., ) and theoretical (Goosby et al., ; Levy et al., ) literature exploring racial differences in sleep. First, the study employs actigraphy to investigate daily, repeated measures assessments of ethnic/racial minority adolescents in their home environments.…”

“…In fact, sleep may be no different from other health disparities that are linked to discrimination and unfair treatment (Goosby, Cheadle, Strong‐Bak, Roth, & Nelson, ). There is emerging research among adolescents, young adults, and adults observing a link between discrimination and sleep disturbances (Beatty et al., ; Goosby et al., ; Hicken, Lee, Ailshire, Burgard, & Williams, ; Huynh & Gillen‐O'Neel, ; Lewis et al., ; Slopen, Lewis, & Williams, ; Zeiders et al., ); however, this research has relied primarily on self‐reported sleep, cross‐sectional research designs, or limited samples, leaving open questions of whether there is a direct, daily association between discrimination and sleep, and how daily sleep disturbances are linked to discrimination. Addressing these gaps in the literature, this study asks: on days in which ethnic/racial minority adolescents experience discrimination, do they also suffer from sleep disturbances?…”

“…In research among college students and adults, discrimination has been observed to fully mediate ethnic/racial differences in sleep disturbances between Black and White individuals (Fuller‐Rowell et al., ; Thomas et al., ). In longitudinal designs, discrimination has been prospectively related to sleep disturbances among ethnic/racial minority adults (Lewis et al., ), young adults (Zeiders et al., ), and adolescents (Goosby et al., ) implicating discrimination as impacting subsequent sleep disturbances. As such, there is reason to suspect that discrimination may be associated with ethnic/racial disparities in sleep.…”

“…One study of Mexican‐origin young adults, Zeiders et al. () observed self‐reported 12‐month discrimination to be associated with more night‐to‐night sleep duration variability but not with average sleep duration. Furthermore, this association was moderated by levels of Mexican and Anglo orientation; for young adults who were biculturally and Mexican‐oriented, discrimination was not associated with sleep.…”