0112 Ethnoracial Differences in the Association Between Witnessing Violence and Sleep Duration Among Young Adults

Abstract Introduction Experiences of interpersonal violence negatively influence sleep and health. Prior research has also shown that being aware of interpersonal violence experienced by friends and family is associated with short sleep duration. We seek to understand whether sleep is disrupted by witnessing or experiencing physical violence. Methods Data were from the age 22 wave of the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N=444). Young adults wore a wrist actigraphy device for 14 days and self-reported their experiences with physical violence over the prior year. Witnessing and experiencing violence were classified in four ways: witnessing/experiencing violence by someone not close and witnessing/ experiencing violence by someone close. Separate linear regression models assessed the cross-sectional associations of experiences of violence with nighttime total sleep time (TST), adjusting for race/ethnicity, gender, and educational level. Secondary analyses assessed race/ethnicity as a moderator of violence on night sleep duration. Results 33% of young adults witnessed violence perpetrated by someone not close to them, 13% experienced violence by someone not close to them, 16% witnessed violence by someone close to them, and 8% experienced violence by someone close to them. There were no significant main effects of any type of violence on TST. There were interaction effects of witnessing violence (not close AND close) and race on mean TST. Post-hoc tests on witnessing violence by someone not close revealed White young adults had lower TST (42 minutes, p< 0.009) compared to White young adults who had not witnessed violence by someone not close to them. In addition, post hoc tests on witnessing violence by someone close revealed Black young adults had higher TST (20 minutes, p< 0.046) compared to Black young adults who had not witnessed violence by someone close to them, whereas White young adults had lower TST (43 minutes, p=< 0.037) compared to White young adults who had not witnessed violence by someone close to them. Conclusion We observed ethnoracial differences in associations between witnessing physical violence and sleep. More research is needed to further explain these interactions. Support (if any) R25-HL147668, R01HD073352, R01HD36916, R01HD39135, R01HD40421.