A between- and within-group approach to examine sleep, discrimination, and mental health among sexual-minority youth.

Objectives: To advance our understanding of sleep among sexual-minority (SM) youth using actigraphy and to assess sleep as a buffer against minority stress (i.e., discrimination) for SM youth.

Methods: Participants included 211 SM and 2768 non-SM youth from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (M age = 11.96 years, SD = 7.80 months). Youth reported SM status and minority stress (past 12-month discrimination), sleep was derived from actigraphy, and parents reported on youth mental health (internalizing symptoms and externalizing behaviors). A multivariate analysis of covariance was used to compare the sleep of SM and non-SM youth; interaction models were used to test sleep as a moderator of relations between SM-based discrimination and mental health.

Results: In models adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics and internalizing symptoms, SM youth had shorter sleep duration (F = 13.90, p < .001), higher sleep efficiency (F = 4.46, p = .04), less wake after sleep onset (F = 10.43, p = .001), later sleep timing (F = 17.67, p < .001), and more irregularity in duration (F = 18.91, p < .001) and timing (F = 12.00, p < .001) compared with non-SM peers. Across parameters, sleep quality moderated relations between discrimination and externalizing behaviors: for SM youth with better sleep, there was no relationship between discrimination and externalizing (aggressive/rule-breaking) behaviors, suggestive of a protective role for sleep quality.

Conclusions: Sleep should be promoted among sexual-minority youth. For adolescent externalizing behaviors, sleep quality could play a key role in buffering against the stress of sexual-minority discrimination.