Longitudinal association between perceived discrimination and sleep problems among young adults in the United States: Tests of moderation by race/ethnicity and educational attainment

Abstract

Rationale: Although perceived discrimination is known to affect sleep, the findings of previous research are limited because they are mostly based on either cross-sectional data or non-generalizable samples, such as clinical samples. There is also little evidence on whether perceived discrimination differently affects sleep problems across different groups.

Objective: This study examines whether perceived discrimination is related to sleep problems when considering unmeasured confounding factors and how that relationship varies by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status from a longitudinal perspective.

Methods: This study uses Waves 1, 4, and 5 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) and conducts hybrid panel modeling to estimate both within- and between-individual effects of perceived discrimination on sleep problems.

Results: First, the results of the hybrid modeling show that increased perceived discrimination in daily life is related to poorer sleep quality when accounting for unobserved heterogeneity as well as time-constant and time-varying covariates. Moreover, the moderation analyses and the subgroup analyses demonstrate that the association was not found among Hispanics and among those with a bachelor's degree or more. That is, Hispanic origin and college attainment weaken the associations between perceived discrimination and sleep problems, and the differences by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status are statistically significant.

Conclusions: This study suggests a robust link between discrimination and sleep problems and further elaborates on whether this association varies among different groups. Efforts to reduce interpersonal and institutional discrimination (e.g., discrimination at the workplace or in the community) can help to improve sleep problems and thereby promote overall health. We also suggest that future research consider the moderating roles of susceptible and resilient factors in the relationships between discrimination and sleep.

Keywords: Education; Heterogeneity; Hybrid modeling; Perceived discrimination; Race/ethnicity; Sleep problems.