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Session Schedule

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Introduction

0:00:24
Adolescent sleep development and mental health
Rachel Ran Wang (Hong Kong)

0:20:20
Sleep patterns and internalizing psychopathology in children adopted from foster care
Candice Alfano (United States)

0:41:26
Sleep quality interacts with reactivity to daily social threat events to predict suicidal Ideation in sexual and gender minority young adults
Stanley Seah (United States)

1:00:44
Savoring approaches to better sleep in a war zone: Co-design of a brief digital intervention for Ukrainian youth
Dana McMakin (United States)

1:22:45
Question and answer

Summary

Internalizing psychopathology is more likely in young people who experience social context stressors, which vary on a Bronfenbrennerian scale from the family microsystem to the peer exosystem to the cultural-political macrosystem. Sleep is sensitive to social stressors, changes from childhood to early adulthood, and can precede internalizing psychopathology, raising the possibility that it bridges connections between social stressors and internalizing problems early in the lifespan.

Developmental psychopathology emphasizes the importance of conceptualizing mental health with an eye to vulnerable periods and typical development. Using epidemiologic data, Dr. Li will provide developmental context for the symposium by focusing on adolescence as a model of vulnerability for sleep and mental health problems. The presentation will describe changes in sleep features, the prevalence of sleep problems, and ways in which sleep changes may combine with psychosocial challenges to increase risk for psychopathology.

Children who spend time in foster care are at risk for sleep disturbances and affective psychopathology. Dr. Alfano examined sleep patterns and affective health in 362 children adopted from foster care (Mage=5.5 years), using latent profile analysis to identify five distinct sleep profiles reflecting "Good Sleep" (36.0%), "Sleep-Onset Delay Problems" (16.0%), "Pre-Sleep/Bedtime Sleep Problems" (12.9%), "Severe Sleep Disturbance" (12.9%), and "Broad Behavioral Sleep Problems" (8.6%). Domestic violence exposure, older age at adoption, in-utero drug exposure, and parent-child sleep conflict predicted higher-risk sleep profiles, which were linked to greater depression and anxiety approximately four years later.

The dynamic interplay of social threat experiences (e.g., rejection) and poor sleep quality, which are proximal factors in suicidal ideation (SI), can provide understanding of SI in sexual and gender minority (SGM) young adults, a group experiencing minoritization stress and alarmingly high SI. With this goal, Dr. Seah conducted six months of ecological momentary assessment (3x/day, 1 week/month) in 96 predominantly-SGM young adults with chronic SI. Greater affective reactivity to social threat was related to higher likelihood of SI on days following a night of worse sleep but lower likelihood of SI on days following a night of better sleep, suggesting a key role for sleep in responding to social stress.

Youth in war zones are exposed to danger, grief, and noise, which contribute to sleep disruptions. Dr. McMakin will describe a chatbot-based, 4-day cognitive intervention developed in collaboration with two NGOs to improve sleep among Ukrainian youth enduring war-related stress. The intervention included interactive exercises, memes, reminders, and offline activities and focused on savoring, which amplifies positive experiences and can improve sleep. Through co-design with 50 Ukrainian youth and focus groups with 18 participants who completed the program, the intervention was deemed feasible and acceptable.

The symposium addresses a high-impact topic and incorporates diversity. Speakers reflect representation across gender, sexual minority identity, career level, and nationality and are from four institutions across multiple countries. Presentations describe populations across cultures, with topics including mental health disparities and cultural conflict. Integrating findings on multiple forms of stress, developmental points, and populations, the symposium suggests the value of targeted sleep interventions to buffer the impact of social stress.