Purpose: Neighborhood-level socioeconomic disadvantage and lower individual-level socioeconomic status are associated with poorer sleep health in adults. However, few studies have examined the association between neighborhood-level disadvantage and sleep in adolescents, a population at high-risk for sleep disturbances.
Methods: The current study is the first to examine how objective (i.e. via census tract-level data) and subjective measures of neighborhood disadvantage are associated with sleep in a racially/ ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample of 2493 youth [Non-Hispanic White (20%), Hispanic (46%), Asian (21%), and Multiracial/ Other (13%)].
Results: Findings indicated that greater perceived neighborhood-level social cohesion and lower neighborhood-level poverty were associated with better sleep outcomes in adolescents. However, there was some evidence that the magnitude of the associations differed according to family-level socioeconomic status and race/ ethnicity.
Conclusions: Findings suggest that subjective and objective neighborhood characteristics may affect the sleep health of older adolescents, with certain demographic subgroups being particularly vulnerable.
Keywords: Adolescents; Neighborhoods, socioeconomic status, poverty; Sleep; Social environments.
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