Delaying School Start Times to Improve Adolescent Outcomes: Evidence from a Mixed-Methods Evaluation

Insufficient adolescent sleep has been linked to a number of negative outcomes, including decreased academic achievement, increased suicidality, and greater risk for motor vehicle and other types of accidents. The American Academy of Pediatrics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and others have called for all middle and high schools to start later than 8:30a.m. in order to promote longer and more high-quality sleep for adolescents, who are biologically driven to both stay up and sleep in later. Yet, a recent CDC analysis found that the vast majority of middle and high schools start earlier than this time. Although many schools and districts have begun to delay school start times, many remain concerned about the potential costs of doing so versus the potential benefits to student outcomes. For instance, many communities worry that by delaying school start times, sports and other after-school commitments, including taking care of younger siblings or working a part-time job, may be negatively impacted.

The present study uses a mixed-methods design to explore the implications of a 40-minute school start time delay in high schools in a large, diverse, suburban school district. Students and parents from eleven schools serving grades 9-12 were invited to participate in an online survey before the school start time change (SY 2014-15, n~2000) and after (SY 2015-16, n~1200). A randomly selected group of participants on each survey was selected to also participate in online focus groups and interviews about the school start time change. School staff and administrators were also invited to participate, resulting in 14 total individual interview and focus group interviews. Interview responses were coded using the constant comparative method in NVivo10 by a team of trained coders. After qualitative themes were identified, quantitative analyses were conducted to assess whether perceived outcomes were observed in the survey data. Doubly robust, inverse probability treatment weighted regressions were used to ensure a balanced comparison between the pre-change and post-change samples.

Preliminary findings indicate that most participants view the school start time change as “the new normal” with neither strongly negative impacts nor strongly positive impacts. Few perceived any noticeable effects on academic achievement or school attendance. Students, but not parents or school staff, perceived that their sleep had improved and parents and school staff reported improved family time. Quantitative analyses are underway to explore each of these themes.

This presentation will discuss the potential implications of school start time changes from a prevention science frame.