Abstract Body (Do not enter title and authors here): Background: Promoting sleep health is critical for cardiovascular disease prevention. Few longitudinal studies have examined whether childhood maltreatment influences sleep duration across developmental periods, limiting the ability to design effective preventive interventions to promote long-term sleep health. Further, determining whether social support modifies the influence of childhood maltreatment on sleep duration can inform prevention strategies. We examined the associations of childhood maltreatment with sleep duration from adolescence into adulthood and whether social support moderated these associations.

Hypothesis: We hypothesized that (1) greater childhood maltreatment would be associated with less favorable sleep duration trajectories from adolescence into adulthood, and (2) higher social support would weaken these associations.

Methods: We analyzed longitudinal data from Waves I–IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Sleep duration was self-reported. Different forms of childhood maltreatment, including parental neglect, emotional abuse, physical abuse, and sexual abuse, were assessed before age 18. Social support was assessed using an 8-item scale with higher scores indicating greater social support. Latent growth curve models were used to separately estimate the associations of different forms of childhood maltreatment with sleep duration across Waves I to IV. To assess moderation, we added interaction terms between each form of childhood maltreatment and social support. Models were adjusted for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, and income.

Results: The sample included 4,350 participants (mean age 28.3 ± 1.6 years), of whom 57% were women and 82% were White. Sleep duration generally declined from Waves I to III (p < 0.001). Emotional abuse and parental neglect were associated with lower baseline sleep duration (p < 0.01). Parental neglect was associated with a steeper decline in sleep duration over time (β = -1.06, p = 0.01). Moderation analyses indicated that social support weakened the associations of physical abuse (p = 0.02) and parental neglect (p = 0.01) with sleep duration over time.

Conclusions: Findings suggest that some forms of childhood maltreatment are associated with less favorable sleep duration trajectories from adolescence into adulthood. Interventions aimed at enhancing social support during adolescence may weaken the link between childhood maltreatment and sleep duration in adulthood.