Psychosocial Determinants of Sleep Behavior and Healthy Sleep Among Adolescents: A Two-Wave Panel Study

Poor sleep is an increasing health problem among adolescents. To inform future (co-created) healthy sleep interventions, it is necessary to know the most changeable factors influencing sleep behavior. However, little is known about which psychosocial determinants identified by leading behavior change theories are associated with sleep in adolescents. In the current study, we investigated whether changes in psychosocial determinants of sleep were associated with changes in adolescents’ sleep duration and quality. Parental social support, positive attitude towards healthy sleep, norm-knowledge, and perceived peer behavior were associated with sleep duration, with parental social support having the strongest association. Perceived barriers, self-efficacy, positive attitude, and parental modeling were associated with sleep quality parameters, with perceived barriers having the strongest association. This indicates that behavior change theories are useful in the context of adolescent sleep behavior and suggests that perceived parental support and perceived barriers might be important targets for healthy sleep interventions.

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