Sleep Disturbances, Psychosocial Difficulties, and Health Risk Behavior in 16,781 Dutch Adolescents

To investigate the prevalence of adolescent sleep disturbances and their relation to psychosocial difficulties and health risk behaviors with the use of data from a province-wide health survey (n = 16,781). Psychosocial difficulties were measured with the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire. Additional assessments included self-reported sleep disturbances, suicidality, and health risk behaviors including current use of tobacco, alcohol, and drugs, physical inactivity, and compulsive use of multimedia. We used multilevel analyses to investigate the relationhips, including differences, between boys and girls, as well as the mediating role of emotional problems. Just under 20% of adolescents reported sleep disturbances in the previous month. These sleep disturbances were associated with psychosocial problems (odds ratio [OR], 6.42; P