Transition of Sleep Problems Subgroups and Its Predictors in Chinese Early Adolescents

Sleep problems are highly prevalent among early adolescents globally. This study aimed to identify heterogeneous subgroups of sleep problems, their transitions, and predictors of transition among Chinese early adolescents. A total of 653 adolescents (52.40% boys; baseline: M age = 13.66) participated in this longitudinal study over six months. LCA identified three subgroups: good sleepers (i.e., exhibiting low probabilities across all sleep problem subdimensions), poor sleepers (i.e., exhibiting high probabilities across all subdimensions), and insufficient-inefficient sleepers (i.e., exhibiting elevated probabilities for short sleep duration and poor sleep efficiency). LTA revealed the insufficient-inefficient sleepers as the most stable subgroup, and both good sleepers and poor sleepers showed tendencies to transition toward the insufficient-inefficient sleepers. Adolescents with more nonsuicidal self-injury behaviors and higher depression were more likely to transition from good sleepers to insufficient-inefficient sleepers, whereas higher anxiety predicted persistence in poor sleepers. These findings support targeted adolescent sleep interventions.