Abstract
Mounting evidence suggests that multiracial adolescents may be at greater risk than their monoracial peers for both sleep problems and alcohol use. However, mechanisms underlying these uniquely-heightened risky health behaviors among multiracial adolescents remain a gap in the literature. This cross-sectional study examined a risk pathway involving discrimination experiences and negative mood underlying racial disparities in concurrent sleep problems and drinking frequency. Students at an urban, socioeconomically-disadvantaged high school (N=414; grades 9–11, Mage=16.00 [SD=1.08]; 57% female; 17% multiracial, 41% Black, 22% White, 18% Asian, 2% Other; 12% Hispanic/Latinx) completed a survey. Path analysis demonstrated that associations of multiracial status with sleep problems (insomnia symptom severity and insufficient weekday sleep duration), but not drinking frequencies (past-year drinking or past-2-week binge-drinking frequencies), were explained by discrimination experiences and, in turn, negative mood. In ancillary analysis excluding White students, the serial indirect risk pathway was significant for both insomnia symptom severity and past-year drinking frequency outcomes. Discrimination experiences and negative mood may function as intermediate factors contributing to racial disparities in adolescent sleep problems, although longitudinal replication is needed.
Highlights
Multiracial individuals are one of the fastest growing populations in the United States (United States Census Bureau 2012); the health behaviors of multiracial individuals, especially adolescents, remain under-researched
There is mounting evidence that multiracial adolescents may be at greater risk than their monoracial peers for health outcomes, including sleep problems (Udry et al 2003) and alcohol use (Goings et al 2018)
This study investigated theorized associations of race with sleep problems and alcohol use (Edwards et al 2015) among multiracial and monoracial adolescents from an urban and socioeconomically disadvantaged high school using cross-sectional data
Summary
Multiracial individuals are one of the fastest growing populations in the United States (United States Census Bureau 2012); the health behaviors of multiracial individuals, especially adolescents, remain under-researched. Despite known associations of sleep problems and alcohol use by which both are reciprocally exacerbated over time (Koob and Colrain 2019), mechanisms underlying these heightened risk behaviors among multiracial adolescents remain a gap in the literature. Exposure to stressors induces emotion dysregulation, such as negative (depressed and/or anxious) mood. This negative mood is theorized to confer risk for both sleep and alcohol use in adolescents. Associations with stressors and negative mood have been well-documented (Keyes et al 2012), evidence for this association is relatively less researched in adolescents compared to adults. Regarding sleep problems, emerging research in adolescents has likewise documented associations with exposures to stressors (e.g., quiz task) and resulting negative mood (e.g., tonic arousal; Beebe et al 2010)
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