Disparities in sleep duration and quality by industry of employment and occupational class among Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders and non-Hispanic Whites in the United States.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate disparities in the work-sleep relationship between Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders (NHPIs) and non-Hispanic (NH)-White populations. METHODS: Using data from a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults (n = 20,828) in the 2014 National Health Interview Survey, we estimated prevalence of short sleep duration (<7 hours) among NHPIs (10%) and NH-Whites for each of 7 employment industry categories and 3 occupational classes. Mean age was 41 ± 0.5years for NHPIs and 49 ± 0.2years for NH-Whites. Women comprised 52% of both groups. RESULTS: NHPIs were more likely than NH-Whites to report short sleep duration across all industry of employment categories (except for food and accommodation services) and occupational classes. The disparity was widest among NHPI and NH-White workers in the "professional/management" industry category, with NHPIs having higher prevalence of very short (<6 hours; 20% vs. 7%) and short sleep (30% vs. 22%) durations and lower prevalence of recommended sleep duration (45% vs. 68%) and waking up feeling rested (53% vs. 67%). Among the occupational classes, the NHPI-White disparity was widest among participants who held support service occupations. Although professionals had the lowest and laborers had the highest prevalence of short sleep among the three occupational classes in both NHPI and NH-White groups, short sleep duration prevalence was higher among NHPI professionals (35%) than NH-White laborers (33%). NH-White workers across industry and occupational classes had higher sleep medication use prevalence compared to NHPI workers. CONCLUSIONS: The work environment via occupation type may contribute to racial/ethnic disparities in short sleep. Further investigations are warranted.

Racial/ethnic disparities in the trajectories of insomnia symptoms from childhood to young adulthood.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To examine differences in the longitudinal prevalence of childhood insomnia symptoms across black/African American, Hispanic/Latinx, and non-Hispanic white groups. METHODS: Participants were 519 children from the Penn State Child Cohort (baseline [V1] from 2000-2005) who were followed up 8 years later as adolescents (V2) and 15 years later as young adults (S3). Mean age at S3 was 24.1 ±â€…2.7 years. Approximately, 76.5% identified as non-Hispanic white, 12.9% as black/African American, 7.1% as Hispanic/Latinx, and 3.5% as "other" race/ethnicity. Insomnia symptoms were defined as parent-reported (childhood) or self-reported (adolescence and young adulthood) moderate-to-severe difficulties initiating/maintaining sleep. Longitudinal trajectories of insomnia symptoms were identified across three-time points and the odds of each trajectory were compared between racial/ethnic groups, adjusting for sex, age, overweight, sleep apnea, periodic limb movements, psychiatric/behavioral disorders, and psychotropic medication use. RESULTS: Black/African Americans compared to non-Hispanic whites were at significantly higher odds of having a childhood-onset persistent trajectory through young adulthood (OR = 2.58, 95% CI [1.29, 5.14]), while Hispanics/Latinx were at nonsignificantly higher odds to have the same trajectory (OR = 1.81, 95% CI [0.77, 4.25]). No significant racial/ethnic differences were observed for remitted and waxing-and-waning trajectories since childhood or incident/new-onset trajectories in young adulthood. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that disparities in insomnia symptoms among black/African American and, to a lesser extent, Hispanic/Latinx groups start early in childhood and persist into young adulthood. Identifying and intervening upon upstream determinants of racial/ethnic insomnia disparities are warranted to directly address these disparities and to prevent their adverse health sequelae. CLINICAL TRIAL INFORMATION: N/A; Not a clinical trial.

Impact of COVID-related Discrimination on Psychological Distress and Sleep Disturbances across Race-Ethnicity.

COVID-related discrimination towards historically marginalized racial-ethnic groups in the United States has been well-documented; however, its impact on psychological distress and sleep (overall and within specific racial-ethnic groups) is largely unknown. We used data from our nationally representative, online survey of 5,500 American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black/African American, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Latino, White, and multiracial adults, conducted from 12/2020-2/2021. Participants were asked how often they experienced discriminatory behaviors "because they think you might have COVID-19" (modified Everyday Discrimination Scale). Psychological distress was captured as having experienced anxiety-depression symptoms (Patient Health Questionairre-4, PHQ-4), perceived stress (modified Perceived Stress Scale), or loneliness-isolation ("How often have you felt lonely and isolated?"). Sleep disturbances were measured using the Patient-Reported Outcomes Information System Short Form Sleep Disturbance scale (PROMIS-SF 4a). Overall, 22.1% reported COVID-related discriminatory behaviors (sometimes/always: 9.7%; rarely: 12.4%). 48.4% of participants reported anxiety-depression symptoms (moderate/severe: 23.7% mild: 24.8%), 62.4% reported feeling stressed (moderate/severe: 34.3%; mild: 28,1%), 61.0% reported feeling lonely-isolated (fairly often/very often: 21.3%; almost never/sometimes: 39.7%), and 35.4% reported sleep disturbances (moderate/severe:19.8%; mild: 15.6%). Discrimination was only associated with increased psychological distress among racial-ethnic minorities. For example, COVID-related discrimination was strongly associated with anxiety-depression among Black/African American adults (mild: aOR=2.12, 95% CI=1.43-5.17; moderate/severe: aOR=5.19, 95% CI=3.35-8.05), but no association was observed among White or multiracial adults. Mitigating pandemic-related discrimination could help alleviate mental and sleep health disparities occurring among minoritized racial-ethnic groups.

Association of insomnia phenotypes based on polysomnography-measured sleep duration with suicidal ideation and attempts.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the association of insomnia phenotypes, being insomnia with short sleep duration (ISSD) and insomnia with normal sleep duration (INSD), with suicidality in a randomly selected population-based sample. METHODS: Data were analyzed from the Penn State Adult Cohort. Participants (N = 1741, 52.5 years, 57.4% female) were randomly recruited from the general population between January 1990 through March 1999 and mortality data were available through December 2018. Insomnia symptoms were defined as self-reports of moderate-to-severe difficulties initiating or maintaining sleep, early morning awakening and non-restorative sleep, or having chronic insomnia (n = 719). Short sleep duration was defined as <6 hours of in-lab polysomnography-measured sleep duration (n = 879). Suicidality (SAI; n = 102) was ascertained by a lifetime history of suicidal ideation (SI; n = 84), suicide attempts (SA; n = 48) or death by suicide (DBS; n = 10). RESULTS: Compared to normal sleepers who slept ≥6 hours, participants with ISSD and INSD were associated with 1.72-fold and 2.22-fold increased odds of SAI, respectively; these associations were significant for SI, with 2.09-fold and 2.24-fold increased odds, respectively, but not for SA, after adjusting for physical and mental health comorbidities. ISSD and INSD differed in SAI age of onset and hospitalizations after SA. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this cohort study suggest that both INSD and ISSD phenotypes are associated with increased suicidal ideation, while the INSD phenotype has an earlier age of onset and is more likely to experience hospitalizations after attempting suicide. These results highlight the importance of targeting insomnia symptoms to help prevent suicide.

Preventing Relationship Abuse Among College Students: A Controlled Trial of the Skills for Healthy Adult Relationships (SHARe) Program.

Intimate partner violence (IPV), which includes emotional, physical, and sexual violence in casual/dating and committed relationships, occurs at disproportionately high rates among college students. Prevention in college-age years is developmentally crucial, as college is associated with IPV risk. Relationship skills training has shown preliminary efficacy in decreasing IPV among college students. This article presents data from a controlled trial of Skills for Healthy Adult Relationships (SHARe), a weekly eight-session (12-hr) group program for college students, which aims to prevent interpersonal conflict and IPV through enhancing positive communication, reducing negative communication, promoting positive relationship attitudes, and strengthening ability to self-regulate in interpersonal contexts. Sixty-two college students (54.8% female) were allocated to the SHARe group or a wait-list control by randomizing to condition and then reassigning some individuals to control based on schedule availability to attend groups. Participants completed self-report measures of positive and negative communication, interpersonal confidence, and perpetration of physical, emotional, psychological, injurious, and sexual violence at baseline, post-group, and at a 3-month follow-up. At baseline, participants reported low levels of recent severe IPV perpetration, but controls reported higher levels of emotional abuse. Analyses controlled for baseline IPV. SHARe participants reported significantly higher confidence in their ability to manage conflicts at post-intervention and significantly lower psychological aggression at the follow-up compared with wait-listed controls. At the 3-month follow-up, self-reported perpetration of psychological abuse was 1.5 times higher for wait-list controls versus SHARe participants. The findings indicate that SHARe can help college students improve their interpersonal skills and develop healthy, non-abusive relationships.

Centrality of traumatic events and men's intimate partner violence perpetration.

OBJECTIVE: The event centrality model indicates that the development and maintenance of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSSs) occurs when a traumatic event becomes central to one's identity, marking a key turning point in one's life narrative and influencing the meaning assigned to subsequent posttrauma events. Previous research has shown that event centrality is associated with PTSSs among survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV). However, research has not yet determined whether event centrality may explain associations between trauma exposure and IPV among perpetrators of IPV. Trauma and PTSSs are key risk factors for IPV perpetration, but many questions remain about the mechanisms that explain these associations. METHOD: Study participants came from a sample of 134 men presenting for treatment at a community-based relationship violence intervention program in the Baltimore-Washington, DC metro area between July 2013 and July 2015 during routine program intake. In the hypothesized serial model, exposure to potentially traumatic events predicted event centrality, which predicted PTSSs, which predicted IPV perpetration and relationship problems. RESULTS: The serial mediation model was significant for physical assault, psychological aggression, emotional abuse, and relationship problems, but not for sexual coercion. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that the extent to which a trauma becomes central to one's identity is important in understanding the links between trauma exposure, PTSSs, and IPV perpetration. These findings support the development and application of trauma-informed interventions to reduce IPV perpetration and reduce event centrality in this population. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).