The Day-to-Day Impact of Nighttime Noise Disturbances on College Students’ Psychological Functioning

Objective: To understand environmental predictors (i.e., nighttime noise disturbance) of sleep health (i.e., restedness) in residential college students and its potential mental health consequences, this study examined daily variation in restedness upon awakening as a potential mediator between nightly environmental noise disturbances and daily fluctuations in depressive and anxiety symptoms. Participants: The sample was comprised of 283 college students (M age = 19.9, SD  = 1.9; 79% female). Methods: Multilevel structural equation modeling was conducted based on an initial self-report, online questionnaire and an online 7-day daily sleep (morning) and mood (evening) diary. Results: Daily fluctuations in college students\u27 reports of restedness (morning diary) mediated the association between the nighttime presence of noise disturbances (morning diary) and depressive and anxiety symptoms (evening diary). Conclusions: Given the high prevalence of mental health problems in college students, creating more conducive sleep environments may help to prevent depressive and anxiety symptoms in this population

Parents Still Matter: The Influence of Parental Enforcement of Bedtime on Adolescents\u27 Depressive Symptoms

Study Objectives: The aim of the current study was to test a multilevel mediation model that examined how adolescent sleep duration might be linked to depressive symptoms via their daytime energy levels. Furthermore, the study examined how parents\u27 enforcement of various types of bedtime rules predicted the duration of adolescent sleep. Methods: A total of 193 adolescent (ages 14-17; Mage = 15.7 years old, SD = .94; 54.4% female; 71% Caucasian) and parent dyads completed baseline, online surveys, and adolescents also completed online 7-day, twice-daily (i.e., morning and evening) reports of their sleep duration (morning diary) and their energy levels and depressive symptoms throughout the day (evening diary). Parents (Mage = 47.6 years old, SD = 5.4; 80% female) completed assessments of enforcement of bedtime-related rules (i.e., bedtime, cessation of electronic media usage, prohibiting afternoon/evening caffeine consumption). Multilevel modeling enabled the testing of the mediation model both at the between-person level and within individuals. Results: Results suggested that adolescents\u27 energy levels mediated the association between adolescents\u27 sleep duration and depressive symptoms. Furthermore, both greater enforcement of bedtimes and later school start times predicted longer sleep durations for adolescents, and were indirectly associated with adolescents\u27 depressive symptoms. Conclusions: These findings underscore the importance of adolescents obtaining sufficient sleep to support their mental health and suggest a critical point of intervention for preventing or decreasing insufficient sleep. Given the diverse threats to adolescents\u27 sleep as well as adolescents\u27 desire for greater independence, collaborative, autonomy-promoting bedtime limit-setting is recommended to support adolescents\u27 well-being

The Role of Financial Strain in College Students’ Work Hours, Sleep, and Mental Health

Objective: To examine poor sleep quality as a potential mediator between college students’ employment hours and depressive symptoms, and to examine if this mediation model might differ across students reporting different levels of financial strain. Participants: The sample was collected through a multi-site study during the Spring of 2019 and included 792 undergraduates (M = 20.1, SD = 1.9) in Upstate New York. Methods: Moderated mediation analyses based on cross-sectional self-report, online questionnaires. Results: Increased work hours predicted greater sleep disturbance, which, in turn, predicted more depressive symptoms. Compared to students in more comfortable financial situations, this mediation model only emerged for students reporting more financial strain and lower family socio-economic status. Conclusions: Student employment hours are a significant predictor of students’ mental well-being when considering their potential impact on their sleep. Furthermore, students reporting higher levels of financial stress are most at risk of being impacted by this process

Sports and Youth Development Programs: Theoretical and Practical Implication of Early Adolescent Participation in Multiple Instances of Structured Out-of-School (OST) Activity

Among today’s youth, the most ubiquitous OST activity is sports. However, many of these youth are also participating in at least one other OST activity along with their participation in sports. Using longitudinal data from 1,622 youth (56.8% female) from the first three waves (Grades 5, 6, and 7) of the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development (PYD), we employed a pattern-centered approach to assess differences in adolescent functioning depending on what types of OST activities youth were participating in along with their sports participation. Our findings suggest that youth benefit from their sports participation differently depending on what other types of additional activities they participate in during their out-of-school time. In particular, a participation pattern characterized by high participation in sports and Youth Development Programs was found to be the most effective activity profile for promoting PYD and preventing youth problems. Implications of these findings in research and practice are discussed

Grand Challenges of Advanced Computing for Energy Innovation Report from the Workshop Held July 31-August 2, 2012

On July 31-August 2 of 2012, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) held a workshop entitled Grand Challenges of Advanced Computing for Energy Innovation. This workshop built on three earlier workshops that clearly identified the potential for the Department and its national laboratories to enable energy innovation. The specific goal of the workshop was to identify the key challenges that the nation must overcome to apply the full benefit of taxpayer-funded advanced computing technologies to U.S. energy innovation in the ways that the country produces, moves, stores, and uses energy. Perhaps more importantly, the workshop also developed a set of recommendations to help the Department overcome those challenges. These recommendations provide an action plan for what the Department can do in the coming years to improve the nation’s energy future

Adolescent and Parent Sleep Quality Mediates the Impact of Family Processes on Family Members\u27 Psychological Distress

OBJECTIVE: To examine the role of adolescents\u27 and their parents\u27 sleep quality as mediators of family-level processes and family members\u27 psychological distress (ie, anxiety/depressive symptoms). DESIGN: Short-term prospective design with an initial survey followed by a 7-day twice-daily (morning and evening) diary. SETTING: Online survey for high school students and their parents across the United States. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 193 adolescent (M = 15.7 years old, standard deviation = 0.94; 54.4% female) and parent (M = 47.6 years old, standard deviation = 5.4; 80% female) dyads. MEASUREMENT: In the initial survey, adolescents reported on family dysfunction, parent-child relationship quality, and parents reported on their own romantic relationship satisfaction. Both adolescents and parents reported their daily levels of sleep quality (morning diaries) and their psychological distress (evening diaries) for 7 days. RESULTS: At the level of between-family differences, parents\u27 sleep quality mediated the association between their baseline reports of romantic relationship satisfaction and daily levels of psychological distress. In addition, adolescents\u27 sleep quality mediated the association between family-level dysfunction and their own psychological distress. After controlling for between-family associations, spikes in parents\u27 and/or adolescents\u27 sleep quality on specific mornings predicted corresponding drops in parents\u27 evening reports of psychological distress on those same days. Finally, parents\u27 and adolescents\u27 sleep quality demonstrated significant levels of concordance across the 7 days of the daily diary. CONCLUSIONS: Findings underscore the dynamic and tightly related processes within the family system and the important role that sleep plays in linking them with family members\u27 psychological distress

The Moderating Role of Parents\u27 Dysfunctional Sleep-Related Beliefs Among Associations Between Adolescents\u27 Pre-Bedtime Conflict, Sleep Quality, and Their Mental Health

Study Objectives: The current study\u27s aim was to examine the indirect effect of parent-child pre-bedtime arguing about the bedtime process on adolescents\u27 symptoms of anxiety and depression via the mediating role of adolescents\u27 sleep quality. In addition, this study sought to test this mediation model across different levels of both parents\u27 and children\u27s dysfunctional sleep-related beliefs (ie, moderated mediation). Methods: A total of 193 adolescent (mean age = 15.7 years, standard deviation [SD] = .94; 54.4% female) and parent dyads completed both baseline, online surveys, and online 7-day, twice-daily sleep diaries. Parents (mean age = 47.6 years, SD = 5.4; 80% female) reported daily for 7 days on the intensity of any conflict regarding the adolescents\u27 bedtime process, and adolescents completed daily reports of their sleep duration and quality (morning diary) and their anxiety and depressive symptoms (evening diary). Results: Results suggested that adolescent sleep quality mediated the indirect association between parent-child pre-bedtime arguing and adolescents\u27 anxiety and depressive symptoms. Furthermore, this mediation model was moderated by parents\u27 dysfunctional sleep-related beliefs. Only in families with parents reporting either average or above-average (+1 SD) levels of dysfunctional beliefs did this mediation model emerge as significant. Conclusions: Results provide further evidence for the essential role of the family environment in adolescent sleep and well-being, and they suggest that parents\u27 dysfunctional sleep-related cognitions put adolescents at risk for a negative cascade stemming from arguing over bedtime to poor-quality sleep and its negative consequences on their mental health

Equal Benefits? An Examination of the Potential Consequences of Later School Start Times for Adolescents and Their Mental Health

Background: Given the documented benefits of later school start times on adolescents\u27 mental health, the aim of the current study was to examine if the association between school start times and depressive symptoms differed across adolescents from families of different socioeconomic status levels. Methods: Using a cross-sectional design, the current study incorporated an online survey for high school students and their parents across the United States, with average sleep duration measured through a 7-day sleep diary. A total of 193 adolescent (Meanage = 15.7 years old, SD = .94; 54.4% female; 71% white) and parent (Meanage = 47.6 years old, SD = 5.4; 80% female; 79% white) dyads participated. Adolescents reported on depressive symptoms, sleep quality and duration, chronotype, and demographic covariates; parents reported on school start times and socioeconomic status. Results: Results suggested that only in adolescents from higher socioeconomic status families (+1 SD) did the association between later start times and fewer depressive symptoms emerge as significant. Conclusions: Although more school start times research is needed to understand its impact across diverse groups of students, current findings suggest a disproportionate benefit of reduced depression for youth from families of higher socioeconomic status with having a later start time

Unpacking family dynamics: modeling transactional associations among parental depressive symptoms, family processes, and child outcomes

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rochester. Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology, 2013.Research on the impact of parental depressive symptoms on the family system remains fairly scant due, in part, to the complexity of measuring the effects of such pathology within the family. Accordingly, the current study measured a diverse set of family processes (i.e., family functioning, parenting conflict, parental competence, and child internalizing symptoms and sleep problems) at multiple waves of assessment (every 2 months for one year) in a sample of 249 families raising a 2-3 year old child. Both parenting partners were invited to participate at every wave. Employing 3-level Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM; Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002) slope-intercept models with actor-partner interdependence modeling (APIM; Kenny, Kashy & Cook, 2006), results supported multiple transactional associations among the variables measured. Specifically, reciprocal relations were found between the following constructs: paternal depressive symptoms and both family functioning and children's internalizing symptoms; both parents' reports of family functioning and parenting conflict; mother-reported family functioning and parental competence; mother-reported parenting conflict and competence; father-reported parenting conflict and children's internalizing symptoms; mother-reported parental competence and children's sleep problems; and, mother- and father-reported family functioning and sleep problems. These transactional associations were predominately invariant across target children's gender, although significant relations did emerge. This is one of the first studies to examine transactional models of family processes in families with toddler-aged children, and implications for the study of family dynamics are highlighted

Transactions Within the Family: Coparenting Mediates Associations Between Parents\u27 Relationship Satisfaction and the Parent-Child Relationship

In the current study, we examined the potential for transactional relations among parents’ marital satisfaction, coparental cooperation and conflict, and parent–child relationship satisfaction in a sample of 249 families with 2–3-year-old children. Using a novel multiwave design with frequent assessments to better capture transactional family processes, mothers and fathers were assessed across 5 waves with 2-month lags; mean age of the target children (53% girls) was 2.8 years (SD = 0.62) at baseline. Cross-lagged, multilevel structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses using an actor–partner interdependence modeling framework revealed coparental cooperation and conflict as likely mechanisms within the family system. Specifically, marital satisfaction from both parents was reciprocally linked to fathers’ coparental cooperation over time, supporting transactional links between those two family subsystems. In addition, there were significant transactional links between both mothers’ and fathers’ coparental cooperation and father-reported parent–child relationship satisfaction across time, revealing within-parent and cross-parent mediation. Regarding coparental conflict, marital satisfaction from both parents was reciprocally linked to the same parents’ reports of coparental conflict across time (i.e., actor effects). Furthermore, father-reported coparental conflict acted as a mediating or intervening mechanism between father-reported marital satisfaction and mother-reported parent–child relationship satisfaction (cross-parent mediation). Taken as a set, the findings supported coparental cooperation and conflict as significant links between marital functioning and the parent–child relationship. Findings build on a growing body of literature addressing the transactional associations embedded within the family system and highlight the importance of modeling the inherent interdependencies between mothers’ and fathers’ reports of family functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved