The roles of racial discrimination and sleep in the cognitive functioning of racial and ethnic minority youth.

Objectives: Research suggests that chronic stress reduces cognitive functioning; however, studies examining this relationship for race-related stress, such as racial discrimination, are limited and primarily focus on older adults. Moreover, considering the importance of sleep when coping with stress, it is possible that sleep buffers the effect of racial discrimination on cognitive functioning. The present study examined the role of sleep duration and quality in the relationship between racial discrimination and cognitive functioning in early adolescence.

Method: This study utilized a sample of racial and ethnic minority adolescents (N = 176; M_age = 12.1 years; 55% females; 76% Black/African American, 15% Hispanic/Latino, and 8% other minority) participating in a school-based study of adolescent mental health and academic functioning. Analyses included a single multivariate regression model predicting inhibitory control and episodic memory from racial discrimination, sleep duration, sleep quality (objective and subjective), and the interactions between racial discrimination and each sleep variable.

Results: Controlling for age, sex, race/ethnicity, and annual household income, results from the multivariate regression revealed a significant interaction between racial discrimination and sleep duration in predicting inhibitory control. Follow-up analyses showed that racial discrimination was associated with poorer inhibitory control in youth who experienced short sleep duration.

Conclusions: Short sleep duration may increase the deleterious influence of discrimination on youth's cognitive functioning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).