Puberty is a period of developmental maturation that is often characterized by difficulties with sleep and emotion. However, the nature of the relation, if any, between pubertal development and emotional difficulties and sleep problems is unclear. The current three-year longitudinal study aimed to investigate whether adolescents’ pubertal status, level of sleep problems, and level of emotional difficulties at Time 1 predict subsequent changes in the developmental trajectories of sleep problems and emotional difficulties. Participants (N = 1284) aged 7-14 years completed a survey measuring their demographics, pubertal status, emotional difficulties, and sleep problems. The results showed that for both boys and girls, puberty was not associated with increases in emotional difficulties over time. Meanwhile, pubertal development was related to increases in sleep problems over time for girls, but not boys. Thus, the latter stages of puberty may be a time of onset for sleep problems in girls
