Abstract

Introduction: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are known to increase risk of mental health challenges throughout development, and sleep is known to decrease risk of mental health challenges. These have not been studied in tandem in younger cohorts. We investigated whether interactions between sleep duration and sleep regularity would moderate the impact of ACE exposure on risk for the development of mental health disorders. Methods: We conducted secondary cross-sectional analyses on the 2020-2021 waves of the National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH) (n = 92,669). We used logistic and ordinal regression to replicate known main effects of ACEs (total, household, community, and single) and sleep (duration and irregularity) on mental health diagnostic status and symptom severity, and we examined the interaction of ACEs and sleep on mental health diagnostic status. To correct for multiple comparisons, all original models were performed with one half of the dataset and then replicated in the second half. Follow-up analyses by age cohort (0-5, 6-11, 12-17 years) further examined interaction effects across development. Poverty level, parental education status, child age, child sex, neighborhood safety, neighborhood support, and race/ethnicity were included as covariates, as indicated in a priori acyclic graph (DAG) modeling. Results: Known main effects for ACE and sleep on mental health diagnoses were replicated across all models. Interactions between ACE exposure and adequate sleep duration or increased sleep irregularity were not clinically significant, although some were statistically significant due to large sample size, such that adequate sleep duration was associated with marginally increased risk of mental health diagnosis (Omnibus B = 0.048, p < 0.0001) and greater bedtime irregularity was associated with marginally decreased risk of mental health diagnosis (Omnibus B = -0.030, p < 0.001). Discussion: Main effects in this analysis are consistent with previous literature on ACEs, sleep, and mental health. However, interaction effects were largely small and clinically insignificant. Dichotomous and categorical parent-report items assessing sleep health may not be sensitive to interaction effects, compared with continuous data or physiological measurements. Further, examining mental health symptoms (rather than diagnosis status) may also allow for more nuanced understanding of potential interaction effects.

Degree

MS

College and Department

Family, Home, and Social Sciences; Psychology

Rights

https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

2024-04-25

Document Type

Thesis

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd13193

Keywords

Sleep regularity, sleep duration, adverse childhood experiences, family resilience

Language

english

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