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Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, researchers from Idaho State University examined the connections between poor adolescent sleep and substance-related problems. The research team of Maria M. Wong, Gail C. Robertson, and Rachel B. Dyson assessed sleep difficulties among teenagers as predictors of problems such as binge drinking, alcohol-related interpersonal problems, regretted sexual activities, illicit drug use, and drunk driving. They found that teens in middle and high school that had trouble sleeping were more likely to have substance-related problems a year later, and those who slept poorly during that second year also had a higher chance of substance-related problems when they were between 18 and 24 years old.

Read the NPR story here: Teens who skimp on sleep now have more drinking problems later (released on January 16, 2015 by Maanvi Singh).

Excerpt: “Researchers have known for a while that lack of sleep and alcohol use are related, says Maria Wong, a psychologist at Idaho State University who led the study. ‘This study shows that sleep issues can actually precede and even predict alcohol use later on.’

And the influence of sleep on drinking behaviors can be dramatic…. In the study, each extra hour of sleep the teens got corresponded with a 10 percent decrease in binge drinking.”

Author Info: Maria M. Wong is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Idaho State University. Gail C. Robertson and Rachel B. Dyson are graduate students in Idaho State University’s Department of Psychology.

Scholarly source: Wong MM, Robertson GC, Dyson RB. Prospective Relationship Between Poor Sleep and Substance-Related Problems in a National Sample of Adolescents. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 2015. Article Available Online.

Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a research team from Villanova University and the University of Iowa examined the links between skin tone and school suspension. They found that, for African American girls, having darker skin significantly increased odds of suspension. In fact, girls with the darkest skin tone were three times as likely to be suspended compared to those with the lightest skin.

Read the New York Times story here: Schools’ Discipline for Girls Differs by Race and Hue (released on December 10, 2014 by Tanzina Vega).

Excerpt: “There are different gender expectations for black girls compared with white girls, said Lance Hannon… And, he said, there are different expectations within cross-sections of black girls. ‘When a darker-skinned African-American female acts up, there’s a certain concern about their boyish aggressiveness,’ Dr. Hannon said, ‘that they don’t know their place as a female, as a woman.’”

Author Info: Lance Hannon is a Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at Villanova University. Robert DeFina is a Professor and the Chair of Villanova’s Department of Sociology and Criminology. Sarah Bruch is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at The University    of Iowa.

Scholarly source: Hannon L, DeFina R, Bruch S. The relationship between skin tone and school suspension for African Americans. Race and Social Problems 2013; 5(4): 281-295. Article available online.

Using data from both the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health and the Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth, researchers explored the risk of health problems in former foster children. Kym R. Ahrens, Michelle M. Garrison, and Mark E. Courtney examined  whether young adults with a foster or economically insecure background had a greater risk of developing chronic health conditions, such as hypertension and diabetes, than young adults from economically secure backgrounds.  They found that those from an economically secure background had the lowest risk of chronic disease, and former foster children had the highest risk, even beyond  what could be attributed to  financial insecurity.  Former foster children and economically insecure young adults were also less likely to  have health insurance when compared to the economically secure group.

View the abstract or download the complete article in Pediatrics (November 2014)

Authors

• Kym R. Ahrens, Center for Child Health Behavior and Development, Seattle Children’s Hospital & Research Institute;  Division of Adolescent Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington School of Medicine
• Michelle M. Garrison, Center for Child Health Behavior and Development, Seattle Children’s Hospital & Research Institute; Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Washington School of Medicine
• Mark E. Courtney, School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago

Citation

Ahrens KR, Garrison MM, Courtney ME. Health Outcomes in Young Adults From Foster Care and Economically Diverse Backgrounds. Pediatrics 2014; 134(6):1-8.

Using longitudinal friendship data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, as well as individual classroom data from the Classroom Engagement Study, researchers explored social network differences among schools. The research team of Daniel A. McFarland, James W. Moody, David Diehl, Jeffrey A. Smith, and Reuben J. Thomas developed a theory of network ecology in order to explore how the features of a school environment, such as size and demographic composition, may influence the formation of social networks. They found that in larger schools the student body tends to be more segregated than in smaller schools, with higher prevalence of social hierarchies and clustering.  Social exclusion has a higher cost for students in smaller schools, and thus it happens less frequently. In larger schools, this exclusion cost is lower because there are more peers to form relationships with.

Read the Washington Post story here: Why some high schools are less cliquey than others (released on November 11, 2014 by Gail Sullivan).

Read the ABC News story here: See If Your Kids’ School Is at Risk for Cliques (released on November 11, 2014 by Genevieve Shaw Brown).

Excerpt from The Washington Post: “At large schools where the student body is more diverse, students are compelled by a mixture of freedom and uncertainty to cluster into groups with others like themselves, an instinct called ‘homophily.’ At smaller schools, there’s a higher cost to excluding people because fewer students mean fewer potential friends, so cliques are less common.

But small schools and less choice isn’t necessarily better, McFarland cautioned: ‘What may work well for a shy child may not work well for a gregarious one, and neither solution may prepare them well for the realities of adulthood. We just need to study it and see.’”

Author Info: Daniel A. McFarland is a Professor of Education, Sociology, and Organizational Behavior at Stanford University. James W. Moody is the Robert O. Keohane professor of Sociology at Duke University, and he is also affiliated with King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia. David Diehl is an Assistant Professor of Human and Organizational Development at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Education. Jeffrey A. Smith is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Reuben J. Thomas is an Assistant Professor  of Sociology at the University of New Mexico.

Scholarly source: McFarland DA, Moody  J, Diehl D, Smith JA, Thomas RJ. Network Ecology and Adolescent Social Structure. American Sociological Review 2014; 79(6):1088-1121. Article available online.

Include the new study name, National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, in your Add Health publications

Add Health has been renamed the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health to reflect the study’s ongoing, real time life view that follows individuals from early adolescence into adulthood.  Add Health researchers should use the new study name in all publications, presentations and reports based on analysis of Add Health data, as well as grant submissions that reference Add Health, and when citing the Add Health research design. 

To reference the research design of Add Health data, please use the following citation:

Harris, K.M., C.T. Halpern, E. Whitsel, J. Hussey, J. Tabor, P. Entzel, and J.R. Udry. 2009. The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health: Research Design [WWW document]. URL: https://addhealth.cpc.unc.edu//documentation/study-design.

Add Health researchers should use the following acknowledgement in written reports and other publications based on analysis of Add Health data:

This research uses data from Add Health, a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Information on how to obtain the Add Health data files is available on the Add Health website. No direct support was received from grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis.

The National Institutes of Health recently awarded a $28 million grant as a program project that will enable Add Health to follow the original adolescent cohort into their 30s with a fifth interview wave. The new funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) will support a fifth wave of data collection, analysis, and dissemination. This five-year project is planned to begin in 2016 when the Add Health participants will be ages 31-42.

In addition to collecting a new round of social and biological data, this fifth wave will also gather information on respondents’ birth and childhood circumstances including the collection of birth records data for a subset of respondents. Together with existing Add Health data collected over 20 years the scientific community will be able to investigate an invaluable 40-year longitudinal record of the Add Health cohort from birth through the fourth decade of life. These data will be shared with the multi-disciplinary community of researchers to test hypotheses about the causes of chronic disease and inform public health policies for reducing chronic disease prevalence, disparities, and costs in America.

To reflect this study’s ongoing, real time life view that follows individuals from early adolescence into adulthood, Add Health has been renamed the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health.  Beginning in childhood and following the cohort into adulthood represents a major investment by NICHD to understand how social, behavioral, and biological linkages in early life shape the developmental and health pathways into adulthood; NICHD will realize the payoff for its investment with the new data in Wave V of Add Health when scientific discovery of the social, behavioral, and biological processes that lead to health and disease risks will be identified and interventions can be developed to reduce these risks in early life.

Click here for more information on Wave V

UNC News release issued September 25, 2014

Wave V News release also posted to the Carolina Population Center website