0803 Insomnia Symptoms And Sleep Duration Mediate The Association Between Adolescent Screen Time And Depressive Symptoms

Abstract

Although screen-based activities, insomnia symptoms, and insufficient sleep are known risk factors for adolescent depressive symptoms, limited research has investigated whether sleep mediates the association between screen time and depressive symptoms. The current study investigated how four teen screen activities are associated with depressive symptoms, then further examined the mediating role of sleep (i.e., two insomnia symptoms and sleep duration) in these associations.Data come from 3,134 adolescents (mean age= 15.63 years, SD=.71; 51% male) in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study’s teen survey. Surveys included sleep characteristics: two insomnia symptoms (problems falling asleep, problems staying asleep), and habitual weeknight sleep duration; and CES-D depressive symptoms (0–3). Teens reported the typical daily time spent (hours) on four screen-based activities (social messaging, web surfing, TV/movies, and gaming). We constructed a multiple mediation model to elucidate associations between screen time, sleep (insomnia symptoms and duration) and depressive symptoms. Covariates included adolescents’ gender, age, race, family structure and income and primary caregiver’s education.Structural equation modeling analyses reveal that for social messaging, web surfing and TV/movies watching, insomnia symptoms and sleep duration fully mediated the association between screen activities and depressive symptoms. Greater amounts of each screen activity were associated with more insomnia symptoms and shorter sleep duration, which was further associated with greater depressive symptoms. For gaming, insomnia symptoms and sleep duration each partially mediated the positive association of gaming and depressive symptoms, attenuating the total effect of gaming on depressive symptoms by more than 35%. Comparisons across screen activity types revealed that the association of social messaging with depressive symptoms was significantly smaller than the association between gaming and depressive symptoms.Our results demonstrate that the four types of screen-based activities have significant associations with teens’ depressive symptoms mediated by both insomnia symptoms and sleep duration. Parents, educators and health care professionals could consider educating teens and empowering them to regulate their screen activities as possible interventions for improving sleep health and reducing depressive symptoms among adolescents.R01HD073352.