Research Links Sleep Deprivation to Risky Behaviors in Teens

a post by Tyler Jacobson for the World of Psychology blog



It’s a battle that goes on in most households nearly every morning—the alarm goes off, and teens struggle to get out of bed while harried parents try to hurry them along. We are just glad to get them out of the door and on their way to school, never giving more than a passing thought to their sleep deprivation. But maybe we should. New research now shows that sleep-deprived teens are more prone to risky behaviors than their peers who get a full night’s rest.

When considering factors that contribute to teen drug use, drinking, and other risky behavior, few parents, if any, suspect that sleep deprivation has anything to do with it. Sure, we might notice that our teens sleep longer or go to bed later than we’d like but that’s as far as we get.

Continue reading and discover some statistics that you may not want to read about if you are the responsible adult in the life of a teenager.

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Is exposure to online content depicting risky behavior related to viewers' own risky behavior offline?

an article by Dawn Beverley Branley and Judith Covey (Durham University, UK) published in Computers in Human Behavior Volume 75 (October 2017)

Highlights

• Viewing online content depicting risky behavior is linked to users' own behavior.
• Link between viewing disordered eating content and behavior is moderated by gender.
• Females may be more vulnerable to online content depicting disordered eating.

Abstract

There are public and governmental concerns that social media may encourage risky behavior in the offline environment. Using international survey data from 412 young adults aged between 18 and 25 years of age (M = 21.20 years, SD = 2.31 years), this study demonstrates that there is a relationship between exposure to online content depicting risky behavior and users’ own offline risky behavior.

This relationship was found for six behaviors:

• drug use,
• excessive alcohol use,
• disordered eating,
• self-harm,
• violence to others, and
• dangerous pranks.

A borderline effect was found for two further behaviors:

• unprotected sex and
• sex with a stranger.

The relationship between content depicting disordered eating and offline behavior was only significant for females; suggesting that female users may be more vulnerable to effects of viewing content depicting disordered eating habits, and/or use social media content to find material related to their existing behavior. No other gender moderation effects were found.

The findings provide preliminary evidence that social media use may influence offline risky behavior in young adults.

Full text (PDF 5pp)

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Risky Disclosures on Facebook: The Effect of Having a Bad Experience on Online Behavior

an article by Emily Christofides and Serge Desmarais (University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada) and Amy Muise (University of Toronto, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada) published in Journal of Adolescent Research Volume 27 Number 6 (November 2012)

Abstract

Social network websites are widely used by adolescents, but disclosing in this environment has inherent risks, as does connecting with others online. In a sample of 256 adolescent Facebook users, the authors explore the relationship between having a negative experience, privacy knowledge, and behaviour.

Their reports of bad experiences on Facebook are categorised as bullying/meanness, unwanted contact, exposure/unintentional disclosure, and misunderstandings. Adolescents who report having a bad experience are more likely to protect their privacy, and this relationship is mediated by knowledge of the privacy settings.

Participants who experience negative consequences are more aware of the risks of online disclosure and how to protect themselves, which results in greater information control. Implications for educating adolescents about privacy and disclosure online are discussed.

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Intergenerational transmission of worklessness: …

Evidence from the Millennium Cohort and the Longitudinal Study of Young People In England

a DFE Research Report (DFE-RR234) by Matt Barnes, Victoria Brown, Samantha Parsons, Andy Ross, and Ingrid Schoon (Centre for Analysis of Youth Transitions) and Anna Vignoles (Institute of Education and National Centre for Social Research) published by the DFE as DFE-RR234 in September 2012

Abstract

This project investigated the extent of parental worklessness in families with young and teenage children, and determined how parental worklessness impacts on children’s cognitive ability, education attainment, behaviours, attitude to school, academic aspirations and experience of the transition from school to work.

We found that parental worklessness was significantly associated with:

• poorer academic attainment and behavioural adjustment of young children (at age 7)
• poorer academic attainment (GCSE point scores) of young people (at Key Stage 4 (KS4))
• with being not in education, employment and training (NEET) and with being NEET for longer (months spent in NEET) in late adolescence.

This result was obtained even after allowing for a number of other socioeconomic risks facing these children and young people (e.g. low income, low parental education level). Though it must be stated that much of the association (but not all) between parental worklessness and these outcomes was attributable to these other risk factors facing workless families.

Parental worklessness had no independent effect on a number of other outcomes, such as children’s well-being (not being happy at school, being bullied and bullying other children), feelings of lack of control, becoming a teen parent, and risky behaviour.

This evidence provides limited support for a policy agenda targeted only at getting parents back into work. It was generally not parental worklessness per se that caused poorer outcomes in childhood and adolescence but rather the complex needs and numerous socio-economic risks faced by workless families.

Our report cannot determine whether we should tackle the underlying sources of these risks (e.g. family poverty, poor parental education etc.) or deal directly with the consequences of these risks (e.g. poor achievement of young people at KS4; experience of NEET). What our research does clearly show is that policy needs to not only target getting parents back into work but also to address the other risks that these children and their families face

Full text (PDF 52pp)

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