The aim of this study is to determine which factors contribute to sleep duration in adolescents.Sleep is important for a range of physiological, emotional and cognitive functions, and concern for sleep in adolescence is high due to critical cognitive and behavioural milestones that occur during adolescence. Adolescents who get less sleep are much more likely to be lacking energy, have difficulty sustaining attention, have poorer school performance, and increased impulsivity (Bailly et al., 2004; Carskadon et al., 1991; Carskadon et al., 1998; Haynes et al., 2006; Randozzo et al., 1998; Steenari et al., 2003; Yang et al., 2005). As such, identifying the factors that contribute to shorter sleep duration is important to help mitigate risk and optimise adolescent outcomes.
The present study used a cross-sectional design to sample 213 South Australian adolescents. Adolescents completed a series of questionnaires and then completed a sleep diary for the following week. Details of the measures are provided below.
Measures
ID- Participant ID code
SEX- Categorical.Male =1 and female=2
Age- Age in years
SleepProblems–Adolescent self-report of having a sleep problem. Categorical: Yes=1 and No=0
Chronotype–Chronotype refers to the degree to which individuals are either morning people (those who wake up early and are most alert in the first part of the day) or evening people (those who are most alert in the late evening hours and prefer to go to bed late).Continuous. Higher scores indicate greater preference for morning alertness and activity.
SleepOnset–Adolescent self-report of difficulty falling asleep. Categorical: Yes=1 and No=0.
SleepMaint– Adolescent self-report of difficulty maintaining sleep. Categorical: Yes=1 and No=0.
SlAnticAnx–Sleep Anticipatory anxiety is the degree of anxiety that an individual has around falling asleep and getting enough sleep to function the next day. Continuous. Higher scores indicate greater sleep anticipatory anxiety.
SleepDuration–Average sleep duration on school nights (in minutes).Continuous.
Bedtime–Average time that adolescent goes to bed on school nights (using decimalised 24 hour clock time). For example 9pm bedtime = 21.0, 9:30pm bedtime = 21.5. The number before the decimal place is the hour and the number after the decimal place is the fraction of time after the hour (15 minutes=.25, 20 minutes=.33, etc.). Continuous.
Research Questions
1. What proportion of adolescents reported a sleep problem? (5 points)
2. Is there a significant difference in the sleep duration of adolescents who report a sleep problem from those adolescents who don’t? (10 points)
3. Is there a significant association between bedtime and sleep duration on school nights? (10 points)
4. Are there differences in sleep duration between boys and girls? Are there differences in sleep duration between the 14 year-olds and the 15 year olds? Do age and sex interact in their effect on sleep duration? (35 points)
5. Develop a hypothesis related to the aim of this study that can be tested using a multiple regression (either standard multiple regression or hierarchical multiple regression). Justify your reasons for your hypothesis and selection of analysis, and report and interpret your findings. (40 points)
For each question, please provide the following:
-A directional hypothesis (not needed for question 1)
-A rationale (logical explanation) for your hypothesis (again, not needed for question 1)
-State the analysis used
-Report your results. You can use tables and/or figures
-Provide a conceptual interpretation of your findings (what are the possible reasons that we might see this pattern of results?) and describe potential implications.
Submitting your assignment
Download a copy of the 2013 Report Proformafrom the homepage (it contains the coversheet and feedback sheet) and save it as: Family_Given(using your Family and Given names) as a docx file. Fill in the details on the coversheet. Do NOT change the fonts or the formatting. Submit the completed assignment via Learnonline by 11pm Sunday 16th June, 2013. You will be advised of your mark for this assignment via Learnonline within three weeks of the submission date of the assignment.
Requests for extensions must be submitted at least three working days prior to the assignment due date. All applications for extension must be made via the Extension request link on the course Learnonline page and include supporting documentation (eg medical certificate, letter from counsellor). Students will be notified (via Learnonline) whether or not the extension has been granted (and the new submission date where appropriate). An assignment handed in after the due date for which an extension has not been granted will lose 5% per working day. Assignments will not normally be accepted once marked assignments have been returned to the class.
There is an expectation that you conform to APA (American Psychological Association) referencing style.
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