Abstract
In this article physical activity, screen time, and academic work are studied as mediators between socio-economic status and sleep duration among school children in India. Participants were 268 school children aged 10–15 from Pune, India. They were sampled from private schools and impoverished public schools. We found that the highest socio-economic status children reported almost an hour and a half less sleep than their lowest socio-economic status counterparts. The lower socio-economic status children reported more physical activity and screen time, and the higher socio-economic status children reported spending more time on academic work. Although screen time was negatively related to sleep duration, academic work was the strongest mediator between socio-economic status and sleep duration. Physical activity was not a significant mediator. In India, academic work is a strong predictor of a lower sleep duration among children and adolescents.
Highlights
Several studies have revealed a link between socioeconomic status (SES), here defined as family wealth and material resources (Boyce et al 2006), and the sleep duration of children and adolescents (El-Sheikh et al 2013; Mezick et al 2008; Patel et al 2010)
The current study examines the relationship between SES and sleep duration among low and high SES youth in India, focusing on three potential mediators: physical activity, screen time, and academic work
When the groups are divided into three SES categories as per the Family Affluence Scale, we find the higher SES group sleeps significantly less than the lowest SES Group [F(2, 265) = 12.282, p = .001, η2 = .085], that there are no significant differences between the SES groups in terms of physical activity [F(2, 265) = .217, p = .805, η2 = .002], but there are significant differences on screen time [F(2, 265) = 10.524, p = .001, η2 = .074], and academic work [F(2, 265) = 17,819, p = .001, η2 = .119], with the lowest SES group reporting the most screen time and the least time spent on academic work
Summary
Several studies have revealed a link between socioeconomic status (SES), here defined as family wealth and material resources (Boyce et al 2006), and the sleep duration of children and adolescents (El-Sheikh et al 2013; Mezick et al 2008; Patel et al 2010). Many Western studies suggest that youth get insufficient sleep (El-Sheikh and Buckhalt 2015; Loessl et al 2008; Smaldone et al 2007) and insufficiently engage in physical activity (Biddle and Goudas 1998). Lower SES youth in the western world have been known to be less physically active than their higher SES counterparts (Patel et al 2010).
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