Peer-reviewed article
Child maltreatment and sleep problems among adolescents in Ontario: A cross sectional study
Sarah E. Turner, Caitlin Menzies, Janique Fortier, Isabel Garces, Shannon Struck et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This cross-sectional study examined the relationship between child maltreatment and sleep problems in over 2,900 adolescents aged 14–17 in Ontario, Canada. All five types of maltreatment studied—sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional maltreatment, physical neglect, and exposure to intimate partner violence—were associated with worse sleep outcomes, including taking longer to fall asleep, waking during the night, and sleeping fewer hours on weekdays. The findings suggest that preventing child maltreatment could improve sleep and overall well-being in adolescents.
Key points
- All five types of child maltreatment were associated with taking more than 10 minutes to fall asleep (adjusted odds ratios: 1.21–1.58)
- Waking more often during the night showed the strongest associations with maltreatment (adjusted odds ratios: 1.62–5.73)
- All types of maltreatment were linked to fewer hours of sleep on weekdays (adjusted beta: −0.39 to −0.15)
- Sexual abuse, emotional maltreatment, and exposure to intimate partner violence were associated with decreased sleep on weekends
- The study used a representative sample of the Ontario adolescent population, making findings generalizable to this group
Limitations
As a cross-sectional study, this work cannot establish causation—it only shows associations between maltreatment and sleep problems. The study cannot rule out reverse causation or the influence of unmeasured confounding factors, and relies on self-reported data on sensitive experiences.
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Child maltreatment has a negative impact on health and well-being. Healthy sleep patterns are an important indicator of health and are particularly important for adolescent growth and development. Few studies examine the relationship between child maltreatment and sleep problems using a general population, adolescent sample. The objective of the current study was to examine the relationship between five different types of child maltreatment and four sleep outcomes among adolescents. METHODS: Data were from a subset of the Ontario Child Health Study 2014, a representative sample of 14 to 17- year-olds in Ontario, Canada (n=2,910). Sexual abuse, physical abuse and exposure to intimate partner violence (EIPV) were measured using the Childhood Experiences of Violence Questionnaire (CEVQ). Emotional maltreatment and physical neglect were measured using items derived from survey questions designed for the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Sleep outcomes included time it takes to fall asleep, waking during the night, and hours of sleep on weekdays and weekends. Models were adjusted for sociodemographic variables. RESULTS: Findings indicate that all types of child maltreatment were associated with increased odds of taking more than 10 min to fall asleep (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 1.21-1.58), waking more often during the night (AOR: 1.62-5.73) and fewer hours slept on weekdays (adjusted beta [AB]: -0.39 to -0.15). Child sexual abuse, emotional maltreatment, and EIPV were associated with decreased hours of sleep on weekends (AB: -0.63 to -0.28). CONCLUSION: Preventing child maltreatment may improve sleep outcomes among adolescents, thereby improving overall health and well- being.