Daily Bidirectional Relationships Between Sleep and Mental Health Symptoms in Youth With Emotional and Behavioral Problems

Abstract

Objective: The present study examined the daily, bidirectional relationships between sleep and mental health symptoms in youth presenting to mental health treatment.

Methods: Youth aged 6 to 11 (36% female, 44% European American) presenting to outpatient behavioral health treatment (N = 25) were recruited to participate in the study. Children and parents completed daily questionnaires regarding the child's sleep, mood, and behavior for a 14-day period, while youth wore an actigraph watch to objectively measure sleep.

Results: Examining between- and within-person variance using multilevel models, results indicate that youth had poor sleep duration and quality and that sleep and mental health symptoms were highly related at the daily level. Between-person effects were found to be most important and significant bidirectional relationships exist.

Conclusions: Identifying and addressing sleep problems in the context of mental health treatment is important, as poor sleep is associated with increased symptomology and may contribute to worsened mental health.

Keywords: bidirectional; daily; mental health; pediatric; sleep.

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