Longitudinal Trajectories of Sleep Disturbance from Late Childhood to Early Adolescence: The Persistent Imapct of Neighborhood Deprivation

Background and Purpose:

Sleep disturbance is a critical public health concern that often exacerbates during the transition from late childhood to early adolescence. While individual behaviors are frequently targeted, the structural environment remains a fundamental but understudied driver of long-term sleep health. This study aimed to: (1) examine the longitudinal association between neighborhood-level deprivation and sleep disturbances across five waves of data (ages 9–14), and (2) determine how the impact of neighborhood deprivation on sleep health unfolds and persists over time as children transition into early adolescence.

Methods:

This study utilized longitudinal data from the ABCD Study, spanning from baseline to the 4-year follow-up (N=11,875). Sleep disturbance was measured using the Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children (SDSC). Neighborhood environment was operationalized through the Area Deprivation Index (ADI). To address potential bias from participant retention, Inverse Probability Weighting was employed. Longitudinal mixed-effects modeling was used to examine both linear and curvilinear trajectories of sleep outcomes. The models controlled for sex, race/ethnicity, and household socioeconomic status to isolate the unique structural influence of the neighborhood. Analysis was performed using Stata 18.0.

Results:

The findings demonstrated a significant curvilinear trend in sleep disturbances throughout the early adolescent transition. Neighborhood deprivation was a powerful and persistent predictor of sleep disturbances throughout the early adolescent transition. Higher ADI scores at baseline were consistently associated with increased sleep problems at every wave of data collection. Notably, the effect of neighborhood deprivation remained statistically significant and stable over the four-year period, even when household-level socioeconomic indicators were included in the model. This suggests that the structural disadvantages of a neighborhood exert a unique pressure on adolescent sleep health that cannot be mitigated by individual-level resources alone.

Conclusions and Implications:

The results provide strong empirical evidence for the independent and enduring role of neighborhood environments in shaping developmental health. Because the impact of neighborhood deprivation persists across multiple years, these findings call for sustained, place-based interventions rather than short-term individual behavioral changes. For social work, this underscores the necessity of addressing environmental justice and community-level disinvestment as primary strategies to reduce sleep health disparities. Protecting the sleep of vulnerable youth requires a shift toward structural improvements in the communities where they live and grow.