# Social-Environmental Predictors of Sleep Disparities During the Transition toCollege

> **NIH NIH R01** · FORDHAM UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $226,268

## Abstract

Project Summary
 Ethnic/racial minorities (ERMs) are more likely to suffer from short sleep duration and poor sleep quality
relative to Whites. Sociodemographic and environmental stressors disproportionately impact ERMs and have
been implicated in the development and maintenance of race-related sleep disparities. The transition to college
is an especially important time to investigate sleep since young adults encounter a unique configuration of
sociodemographic and environmental stressors linked to sleep. No longer tethered to early high school start
times, college students report later and more irregular bedtimes. College students also sleep less and more
poorly than adults, suggesting a developmental peak in sleep disturbances among young adults.
 Focusing on two sleep-vulnerable groups – ERMs and college students - this 5-year longitudinal study
investigates race-related sleep disparities in a diverse sample of college students during and after the
transition to college; and how race-related sleep disparities forecast downstream health and academic
outcomes through students’ senior year. The study also investigates the risk and protective effects of
ethnic/racial identity as a dynamic and changing moderator during this period.
 The innovative and novel combination of daily diaries and sleep actigraphy, biannual surveys, and annual
assessments of inflammatory biomarkers, telomere length and anthropometric measures offers an unparalleled
opportunity to investigate the daily and longer-term mechanisms, pathways, and consequences of race-related
sleep disparities in a large sample of ERM and White college students. A key innovation of the study is the
intersectional inclusion of ERM, socioeconomic, 1st-generation college, resident and commuter diversity. The
three specific aims of the study are informed by strong preliminary data (R21MD011388), scientific premise,
and the race-based disparities in stress and sleep in context model. The proposed study:
1. Determines the daily and longer-term impact of sociodemographic and environmental stress on race-
 related sleep disparities (duration, quality, regularity) during the college transition and the next four years
2. Identifies race-related sleep disparities as an explanatory pathway for sociodemographic and
 environmental stress to impact health, academic and physiologic biomarker (inflammation and telomere
 length) outcomes
3. Investigates ethnic/racial identity as a dynamic moderator of the daily and longer-term effects of stress on
 sleep, and of sleep on outcomes
Together, these aims advance developmental and health equity science, investigating how sociodemographic
and environmental stress contribute to race-related sleep disparities among diverse college students to
forecast daily and longer-term health and academics over time.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10831843
- **Project number:** 5R01MD015715-04
- **Recipient organization:** FORDHAM UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Tiffany Yip
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $226,268
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-08-23 → 2026-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10831843

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10831843, Social-Environmental Predictors of Sleep Disparities During the Transition toCollege (5R01MD015715-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10831843. Licensed CC0.

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