Losing Sleep and Losing Control: The Impact of Subjective and Objective Sleep on the Problem Behavior and Mental Health of Justice-Involved Young Adults

Proposal Abstract Losing Sleep and Losing Control: The Impact of Subjective and Objective Sleep on the Problem  Behavior and Mental Health of Justice-Involved Young Adults The Losing Sleep study combines interdisciplinary academic perspectives and collaboration with  legal and mental health practitioners to comprehensively examine the sleep health, problem  behaviors, and mental health of justice-involved young adults. Utilizing a novel, multimethod  intensive longitudinal design (ILD), this study assesses daily-level associations among  self-reported and objective measures of sleep, criminal behaviors, substance use, and mental health  in participants of the ongoing Young Adult Court (YAC) study. The YAC study is a longitudinal  randomized controlled trial (RCT) of male TAY (transitional age youth; ages 18-25) who have been  charged with a felony for the first time, who are randomly assigned to either 1) a treatment group  receiving supportive, developmentally appropriate programming in lieu of traditional criminal  processing, or 2) a control group who is processed “as usual” by the system. The Losing Sleep study  utilizes a subsample of these youth to participate in a two-week long daily diary study which  answers the following questions: What is the prevalence of sleep problems among justice-involved  TAY, and how does sleep impact next-day problem behavior (risk-taking, crime, substance use) and  mental health? Drawing on the fields of psychology, criminology, and health science, participants  complete daily diary questionnaires about their sleep quality, risky/criminal behaviors including  substance use (alcohol/marijuana/illicit drugs), and their mood/mental health. Additionally, they  wear actigraphy devices to capture objective measures of their sleep. While scientists have  separately examined the correlates of criminal behavior, sleep quality, and mental health, they are  rarely studied as interconnected phenomena that mutually influence each over time. The Losing Sleep  study will address these gaps in a policy-relevant population: the sample is comprised of TAY  charged with a felony for the first time, a target population for recidivism reduction; and the  sample is comprised primarily of youth of color, which corresponds to the overrepresentation of  minorities within the justice system. The multimethod ILD design enhances causal inference (i.e.,  indicators of sleep quality predicting next-day criminal behavior or mental health, and vice  versa), and findings are expected to have practical implications, with the potential to aid the  development and assessment of sleep interventions designed to reduce recidivism, substance use, and  mental health problems. CA/NCF