Dev Psychopathol. 2025 Nov 25:1-12. doi: 10.1017/S0954579425100965. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: This study employed a cross-lagged panel network model to examine the longitudinal relationships between problems of sleep, internalizing and externalizing problems in adolescents.
METHODS: This study gathered data at four different time points (T1, T2, T3, and T4) for students enrolled in Grades 7 and 8, with an interval of approximately six months between each time point. The present sample comprised 1,281 Chinese adolescents, including 636 girls, with a mean age of 12.73 years (SD = 0.68) at baseline. Cross-lagged panel network modeling was used to estimate longitudinal relationships between symptoms at adjacent time points. Network replicability was assessed by comparing the T1→T2 network with the T2→T3 network and the T2→T3 network with the T3→T4 network.
RESULTS: The anxious/depressed symptom emerged as the most predictive of other symptoms and were also the most prospectively influenced by other symptoms. Cross-cluster edges predominantly flowed from internalizing and externalizing symptoms to sleep problems. Additionally, externalizing symptoms exhibited distinct patterns: aggression predicted more sleep and internalizing symptoms, whereas delinquent behavior predicted fewer of these issues.
CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that mental health problems contribute to later sleep disturbances, with internalizing symptoms playing a central role in adolescent psychopathology.
PMID:41287385 | DOI:10.1017/S0954579425100965
