Gender Discrimination, Perceived School Unfairness, Depressive Symptoms, and Sleep Duration Among Middle School Girls

Abstract

The current study examines how gender discrimination by adults in school is linked with depressive symptoms and sleep duration over time in middle school. The main goal is to test one psychological mechanism that can account for such associations: perceived school unfairness. Relying on a racially-ethnically diverse sample of girls (N = 2,718, M age = 13.01, SD age = 0.39) from 26 middle schools, multilevel mediation analyses revealed that girls who experienced school-based gender discrimination by an adult in seventh grade reported higher levels of perceived school unfairness in eighth grade. Moreover, perceived unfairness, in turn, was associated with more depressive symptoms and shorter sleep durations by eighth grade. Implications of changes in adolescent girls' sleep and mood related to their experiences of gender discrimination are discussed.

Promoting Social Inclusion in Educational Settings: Challenges and Opportunities

“…For example, Gibbons, O'Hara, Stock, Gerrard, Weng, & Wills (2012) showed that discriminatory experiences of African-American adolescents increased anger and impulsivity. Another study shows how girls' experience of gender discrimination by middle school staff predicts increased depression and decreased sleep (Bell & Juvonen, 2019). Sleep deprivation as well as poor quality sleep, in turn are related to increased threat and anxiety (Talbot, McGlinchey, Kaplan, Dahl, & Harvey, 2010) and lower academic performance (Dewald, Meijer, Oort, Kerkhof,, & Bögels, (2010).…”

Measurement of gender and sexuality in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study

“…Multiple aspects of gender and gender socialization shape health and wellbeing over the life course ( Snow, 2008 ). For example, an egalitarian view of gender roles is associated with lower conduct problems for both boys and girls ( King et al, 2019 ), and girls in middle-school who experience gender discrimination by an adult in their school report higher depression and worse sleep ( Bell and Juvonen, 2020 ). In adolescence, girls who uphold rigid beliefs about femininity report low rates of sexual self-efficacy and a greater propensity for sexual risk taking ( Impett et al, 2006 ).…”

Racial and gender discrimination by teachers: Risks for Black girls’ depressive symptomatology and suicidal ideation.

“…For instance, English et al (2014) found that racial discrimination was associated with depression among Black girls. Regarding the impact of gender discrimination on depressive symptomatology, perceived gender discrimination from teachers was associated with perceiving the environment as inequitable and higher depressive symptomatology among a racially and ethnically diverse sample of adolescent females (Bell & Juvonen, 2020).…”