0257 Parental and Adolescent Sleep Consciousness and Associations with Teen Sleep Health

Abstract Introduction Overall health consciousness, or having an active interest in one’s health, has been linked to healthier habits such as diet and exercise. Understanding of sleep health consciousness, or the extent to which individuals are attentive and aware of their sleep and sleep health behaviors, is not well understood. The current study developed a measure of adolescent sleep health consciousness and caregiver sleep health consciousness, and examined associations with teen sleep health behaviors. This study expands on a small but emerging area of research suggesting that the way teens and their parents think about sleep may be important for adolescents’ sleep health (Alvarado et al., 2024). Methods The sample included 125 adolescents ages 10-17 years and their caregivers. Adolescents completed questionnaires to assess sleep duration, sleep hygiene, regularity, disturbance, satisfaction, weekday and weekend bedtime, as well as a newly developed 9-item Sleep Health Consciousness Scale for youth (α = .80; e.g., “I am very aware of how much sleep I get.”). Caregivers completed sociodemographics and a similar 9-item parent-reported Child Sleep Health Consciousness Scale (α = .88), which included items to assess their awareness of their child’s sleep. Results Exploratory factor analyses indicated that a one factor solution was the best fit for both the child and parent-reported scales. Regression analyses showed that child age moderated the association between child sleep consciousness and sleep duration (b = .08, SE = .03, p = .008). Higher child sleep consciousness was associated with longer sleep duration among older children (b = .30, SE = .1, p = .003), but not among younger children. Parent sleep consciousness predicted earlier weekday bedtimes (b = -.48, SE = .22, p = .03), regardless of age. Conclusion Results suggest that caregivers sleep health consciousness, or their attentiveness and awareness of their children’s sleep, was associated with earlier weekday bedtimes. Child sleep consciousness may also be an important indicator of sleep health, but primarily for older adolescents. These findings provide support for the importance of parents in supporting teen sleep health, and that it may be important to include parents in teen sleep interventions and when promoting teen sleep education. Support (if any)