Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2024

DOI

10.1007/s10802-024-01275-w

Publication Title

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology

Volume

Article in Press

Pages

17 pp.

Abstract

Growing research indicates that sleep problems are a robust independent risk factor for suicidal thoughts and behaviors among youth. However, relatively little is known about how this risk is conferred. This study used an intensive longitudinal design to investigate anhedonia as a mechanism linking sleep problems and next-day suicidal thoughts in a clinically high-risk sample of adolescents. Adolescents (N = 48; Mage=14.96; 77.1% white, 64.6% female) completed an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) study design for 28 days following discharge from acute psychiatric care for suicide risk. Daily sleep diaries were used to assess prior night total sleep time and sleep onset latency. Ecological momentary assessment was used to assess anhedonia and suicidal thoughts up to six times per day. A series of multi-level structural equation models were used to examine facets of anhedonia as parallel mediators of the association between sleep problems and next-day suicidal thoughts. Significant direct effects were found between sleep problems and consummatory anhedonia, consummatory anhedonia and suicidal thoughts, and anticipatory anhedonia and suicidal thoughts. There were significant indirect (mediated) effects between sleep problems and next-day suicidal thoughts through consummatory anhedonia, but not anticipatory anhedonia. Findings provide initial evidence as to how sleep problems may confer risk for next-day suicidal thoughts– by increasing consummatory anhedonia. Future research is needed to replicate these findings in larger samples and investigate how modifying anhedonia may mitigate suicide risk in youth.

Rights

© 2024 The Authors.

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original authors and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

Data Availability

Article states: "The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, KKP. The data are not publicly available due to their containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants."

Original Publication Citation

Patel, K. K., Kearns, J. C., Foti, D., Pigeon, W. R., Kleiman, E. M., & Glenn, C. R. (2024). Anhedonia links sleep problems and suicidal thoughts: An intensive longitudinal study in high-risk adolescents. Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology. Advance Online Publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-024-01275-w

ORCID

0000-0003-2497-6000 (Glenn)

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