Longitudinal trajectories of sleep quality in correlation with child maltreatment: a cohort of early adolescents

Child maltreatment may lead to sleep disturbance during the critical period of child development. Our study examined the effect of child maltreatment on trajectories of sleep quality among early adolescents. A total of 1611 participants (mean ± standard deviation: 12.5 ± 0.5 years age at baseline) were enrolled from a middle school in southeastern China. 60.5% of the study participants were males. We collected information on child maltreatment and sleep quality using a self-reporting questionnaire. A group-based trajectory model was used to study trajectories of sleep quality. The four trajectories of sleep quality identified were as follows: low sleep score group (25.0%), moderate-low sleep score group (51.0%), moderate-increasing sleep score (17.0%), and high-decreasing sleep score (7.0%) group. After adjusting for covariates, the results revealed that emotional and physical abuse could increase the risk of developing new-onset sleep disturbances in early adolescents. Emotional abuse [incidence rate ratio (IRR) = 1.90, 95% CI: 1.19–3.03] and physical abuse (IRR = 2.03, 95% CI:1.11–3.70) significantly increased the risk of categorizing in the high-decreasing sleep score group. Additionally, the participants who experienced cumulative child maltreatment had a significant increased risk of developing new-onset sleep disturbances and were categorized in the high-decreasing sleep score group. Our results highlight the importance of preventing and reducing child maltreatment to improve sleep quality in early adolescence.