Contextual Stress Exposure and Longitudinal Change in Mental Health and Sleep Among US Latino/a Adolescents.

Authors

Kathleen M Roche, Katherine B Ehrlich, Roushanac Partovi, Rebecca M B White, Emma Adam

Published in

The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine. Oct 17, 2026. Epub Oct 17, 2026.

Abstract

This research examines how contextual stress exposure within the immigration environment predicts sleep problems and internalizing symptoms for Latino/a adolescents.
Participants included N = 547 adolescents listed as "Hispanic" on 2017-18 middle school enrollment lists in a suburban Atlanta, GA, school district. Using three time (T) points of survey data (2021-23), structural equation models tested paths from immigration-related stressors to changes in sleep problems and internalizing symptoms. Missing data were addressed using multiply imputed datasets and full information maximum likelihood.
At T1, the 244 (44.6%) male and 303 (55.4%) female participants had a mean (SD) age of 16.2 (.91) years. Across time, 28.8%-40.3% of youth reported <7 hours of sleep on average. The prevalence of clinical internalizing symptoms ranged from 31.1% to 35.9% for female participants and from 29.9% to 44.3% for male participants. T1 immigration-related stressors predicted T1 to T2 increases in sleep problems (ß = .12 [95% CI = .03-.20]) and internalizing symptoms (ß = .09 [95% CI = .01-.17]). T2 sleep problems mediated associations between T1 immigration-related stressors and T2 to T3 increases in internalizing symptoms (indirect effect: ß = .01 [95% CI = .00-.03]) and sleep problems (indirect effect: ß = .07 [95% CI = .02-.12]). Sleep problems and internalizing symptoms were reciprocally associated from T1 to T2 (sleep to internalizing: ß = .11 [95% CI = .02-.20]; internalizing to sleep: ß = .14 [95% CI = .04-.25]) and from T2 to T3 (sleep to internalizing: ß = .11 [95% CI = .03-.20]; internalizing to sleep: ß = .10 [95% CI = .00-.20]).
For Latino/a adolescents, immigration-related stressors may harm mental health through increased sleep problems.

PMID:
42893442
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 18 Oct 2026.

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