Does context matter? A multilevel analysis of neighborhood disadvantage and children's sleep health.

To determine how demographic, socioeconomic, and neighborhood characteristics are associated with bedtimes among US kindergarteners. Parents reported bedtimes of their children as well as personal, household, and residential characteristics via interviews in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten (ECLS-K) Class of 1998-1999. The ECLS-K links individual households to US Census tracts. A random selection of 1,280 schools and surrounding communities in the US. A random selection of 16,936 kindergarteners and their parents. The 2 outcomes were regular and latest weekday bedtimes of kindergarteners. Through a series of nested multilevel regression models, these outcomes were regressed on individual- and neighborhood-level variables, including race/ethnicity, sex, family type, household income, mother's educational attainment, neighborhood disorder, and several additional neighborhood characteristics. Models showed significant (P < .05) bedtime disparities by race/ethnicity, sex, family income, and mother's educational attainment. Additionally, models tended to indicate that kindergarteners from disadvantaged neighborhoods experienced later bedtimes than children from more advantaged areas. Neighborhood characteristics accounted for a portion of racial/ethnic differences, suggesting that bedtime disparities are partly rooted in disparate environmental conditions. Reducing disparities in childhood sleep may require programs that target not only children and their parents, but also the communities in which they reside.

Informations de copyright

Copyright © 2020 National Sleep Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.