Advances in Child Development and Behavior - Chapter 7 - Adolescent profiles of ethnicity/ race and socieconomic status: Implications for sleep and the role of discrimination and ethnic/racial identity

The present study seeks to explore the intersectionality of ethnicity/race and socioeconomic status (SES) among ethnic/racial minority adolescents in their developmental contexts, examining its implications for sleep disparities and the roles of discrimination and ethnic/racial identity (ERI; i.e., adolescents' understanding and feelings about who they are in relation to their ethnic/racial group). With 350 adolescents (Asian 41.4%, Black, 21.7%, and Latinx 36.9%, female = 69.1%, Mage = 14.27), we conducted a latent class analysis (LCA) to identify latent classes of adolescents' ethnicity/race, ethnic/racial diversity in their schools and neighborhoods along with SES of their families, schools, and neighborhoods. Next, with hierarchical regression, we tested the association between class membership and subjective and objective sleep duration and quality, followed by the moderating effect of discrimination and ERI. We expected to find adolescents living in low diversity and low SES across various developmental contexts to experience lower levels of subjective and objective sleep duration and quality compared to their counterparts. We also expected to find exacerbating effects of discrimination and ERI exploration, and protective effects of ERI commitment in these associations. Three latent groups were identified (C1: “Black/Latinx adolescents in low/moderate SES families in varying diversity and low SES schools and neighborhoods,” C2: “Predominantly Latinx adolescents in low SES families and moderate diversity and SES schools and neighborhoods,” and C3: “Predominantly Asian adolescents in low/moderate SES families in moderate/high diversity and SES schools and neighborhoods”). The class memberships to C1 and C2 were associated with compromised sleep duration and quality compared to C3. An interaction effect of discrimination was found for C1 in subjective sleep duration and for C2 in objective sleep duration. While no interactions were found for ERI, ERI commitment had a direct association with objective sleep duration and quality. Interpretations and implications for intersectionality approach in studies on sleep disparities and the roles of discrimination and ERI are discussed.