The Association Between Parent Educational Attainment and Adolescent Sleep Health Open Access

Abstract

Introduction: Sleep deprivation is a public health epidemic among America’s teenagers, and can lead to a wide range of physical, behavioral, mental, and academic concerns. Parent educational attainment has been found to impact adolescent sleep health outcomes, although most research has focused only on sleep duration and not other measures of sleep.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the association between the highest level of parent educational attainment and adolescent sleep duration, timing, and sufficiency, to better understand potential sleep health disparities and identify at-risk populations.

Methods: This cross-sectional study used data from a study of 9th grade students from two racially and economically diverse high schools in Barrow County, a semi-rural area in north-central Georgia, collected during the spring semester of 2020. The primary outcomes of interest were student self-reported sleep duration (hours per night), timing (school day and weekend bedtimes before midnight), and sufficiency (feeling like they receive enough sleep). Linear and logistic regressions were conducted for each of these outcomes, adjusted for race/ethnicity, sex, free/reduced lunch status, and whether the student’s parents work traditional hours (9am-5pm). 

Results: A total of 405 responses were included in this study. Overall, there was an association between parent educational attainment and all measured adolescent sleep health outcomes in both unadjusted and adjusted models. Students whose parents had lower educational attainment reported shorter sleep durations, less sleep sufficiency, and had later sleep timing on the weekends. The strongest associations were found between parent educational attainment and later sleep timing on weekends, with p-values of less than 0.05. 

Conclusions: The association between parent educational attainment and adolescent sleep health outcomes demonstrates a potential area to identify at-risk students and reduce sleep health disparities. Including measures on sleep timing and sufficiency fills a key knowledge gap, but further work is needed to better understand the mechanisms of the relationships found in order to inform the development of equitable and effective sleep health interventions.

Table of Contents

Introduction....................................................................................................................................1

Literature Review...........................................................................................................................3

The Association Between Parent Educational Attainment and Adolescent Sleep Health...3

Demographic Differences in Adolescent Sleep Health ......................................................7

Methods.........................................................................................................................................11

Theoretical Framework......................................................................................................11

Study Design and Population.............................................................................................11

Data Collection..................................................................................................................12

Study Measures..................................................................................................................12

Statistical Analysis.............................................................................................................14

Results...........................................................................................................................................14

Demographics....................................................................................................................14

Sleep Duration and Sufficiency..........................................................................................16

Sleep Timing......................................................................................................................17

Discussion.....................................................................................................................................18

Conclusion....................................................................................................................................22

Declarations..................................................................................................................................23

References.....................................................................................................................................24

Tables.............................................................................................................................................28

About this Master's Thesis

Rights statement

• Permission granted by the author to include this thesis or dissertation in this repository. All rights reserved by the author. Please contact the author for information regarding the reproduction and use of this thesis or dissertation.

School	Rollins School of Public Health
Department	Epidemiology
Subfield / Discipline	Epidemiology - MPH & MSPH
Degree	M.P.H.
Submission	Master's Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Health Sciences, Public Health Health Sciences, Epidemiology
Keyword	Parental Education Social Epidemiology Sleep Health
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Julie Gazmararian, Emory University

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