Citation

Bao Z, Chen C, Zhang W, Jiang Y, Zhu J, Lai X. J. Sch. Health 2018; 88(4): 315-321.

Affiliation

School of Education Science, Jiaying University, No. 100 Meisong Road, Meijiang District, Meizhou 514015, China.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, American School Health Association, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/josh.12608

PMID

29498062

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Although previous research indicates an association between school connectedness and adolescents' sleep quality, its causal direction has not been determined. This study used a 2-wave cross-lagged panel analysis to explore the likely causal direction between these 2 constructs.

METHODS: Participants were 888 Chinese adolescents (43.80% boys; M_age= 15.55) who provided self-report data on school connectedness and sleep quality as well as demographic variables at the beginning and the end of a school year.

RESULTS: After controlling for sex and age, we found that sleep problems at the beginning of the school year were a significant and negative predictor of school connectedness at the end of the school year (b₂= -.26, SE =.13, β₂= -.10, p <.05), but school connectedness at the beginning of the school year did not predict sleep problems at the end of the school year (b₁=.05, SE =.03, β₁=.09, p >.05). Separate analyses by sex showed that the above pattern of results was mainly driven by the boys.

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings demonstrated that sleep problems could be a risk factor for adolescent boys' school connectedness.

© 2018, American School Health Association.

Language: en

Keywords

adolescent health; cross-lagged panel analysis; school connectedness; sleep problems