Abstract
In children and adolescents, symptoms of depression, anxiety, and irritability frequently co-occur, and many of these affective problems are associated with sleep disturbance. However, the extent to which sleep disturbance is specifically linked to any one of these affective problems over and above the others remains unclear. Therefore, the current study investigated the unique associations of sleep disturbance with depression, anxiety, and irritability. A community sample of 526 parents/caregivers of youths ages 6–14 (Mage = 9.51; 53.6% female) completed measures assessing their child’s symptoms of sleep disturbance, depression, anxiety, and irritability. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine sleep disturbance as predicted by depression, anxiety, and irritability, with age and gender as covariates and moderators. Zero-order correlations showed that sleep disturbance was significantly and positively associated with depressive symptoms, anxiety, and irritability. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that sleep disturbance was uniquely associated with depression and anxiety, but not irritability, when all three emotional variables were included in the same model. Further, exploratory moderation analyses suggested that the association between sleep disturbance and irritability may be moderated by child age and gender. Findings shed light on the role of sleep disturbance as a transdiagnostic feature in youth psychopathology, with particularly strong and unique links to depression and anxiety (less so for irritability). Additional research is needed examine these relationships across diverse samples, in clinical settings, and using multi-method, multi-informant, and longitudinal approaches.