Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2025 Oct 15. doi: 10.1007/s00787-025-02888-2. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
Sleep disturbance is highly prevalent during childhood and adolescence, dramatically affecting their emotional and behavioral development. However, its developmental patterns and contributing factors remain underexplored. This study aimed to evaluate the longitudinal associations of sleep disturbance trajectories with genetic and environmental risk factors, as well as mental health outcomes, from late childhood to early adolescence. Data were drawn from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study, with annual assessments of sleep disturbance. A total of 11,509 children were categorized into four distinct trajectories via growth mixture modeling: decreasing, persistent high, increasing, and persistent low. Multinomial logistic regression revealed that the decreasing trajectory was characterized by improvements in caregiver mental health and school experience. In contrast, both the increasing and persistent high trajectories exhibited worsening caregiver mental health, school experience, and elevated family conflict. Additionally, among children of European ancestry, the increasing trajectory was significantly associated with polygenic risk scores for insomnia. Regarding outcomes, the decreasing trajectory predicted reductions in internalizing, externalizing, and total problems, while the increasing trajectory predicted worsening psychopathology. This study highlights the importance of jointly considering genetic and environmental factors in identifying children at risk for adverse sleep trajectories. Targeted early interventions addressing familial and school domains may enhance both sleep and mental health during this critical developmental period.
PMID:41091178 | DOI:10.1007/s00787-025-02888-2
