Journal of Research on Adolescence
Abstract Submission Deadline: Monday, 30 November 2026
Full Manuscript Submission Deadline: Tuesday, 15 June 2027
Sleep is increasingly recognized as a central developmental process during adolescence, when biological changes in circadian timing intersect with growing autonomy and changing family, school, peer, and digital lives (Becker et al., 2015; Carskadon, 2011; Tarokh et al., 2016). Adolescents worldwide commonly experience insufficient or disrupted sleep, with implications for mental health and broader adjustment (Gariepy et al., 2020; Gradisar et al., 2011; Short et al., 2020). At the same time, sleep is multidimensional, extending beyond duration to aspects such as sleep quality and regularity (Buysse, 2014; Meltzer et al., 2021). A developmental account of adolescent sleep, therefore, requires attention not only to how much adolescents sleep but also to when, where, why, and under what sociocultural conditions sleep is promoted or disrupted.
This special issue foregrounds sleep as an adolescent developmental experience embedded in context. Recent reviews on sleep disparities and ethnic-racial discrimination further underscore that adolescent sleep is shaped by unequal sociocultural and developmental conditions (El-Sheikh et al., 2022; Yip et al., 2024). Building on socioecological and culturally situated models of sleep, development, and daily resilience (Grandner, 2019; Wang et al., 2025), we conceptualize sleep as shaped by intersecting biological, family, school, peer, neighborhood, digital, and sociocultural conditions. We are especially interested in work examining how adolescents understand, negotiate, and experience sleep, sleep loss, fatigue, bedtime routines, and regularity. We also welcome research on how puberty and broader contextual forces, including school schedules and start times, neighborhood and environmental conditions, policies, and culture, shape sleep and its links with development. Studies may examine how these processes change across daily, seasonal, pubertal, and developmental time and relate to academic, mental, social, behavioral, physical, or neurodevelopmental outcomes. Prior sleep research has disproportionately drawn on Western samples and theories; therefore, studies based on non-Western, Majority World, and culturally diverse populations are especially welcome.
This special issue aims to advance a culturally and developmentally grounded understanding of adolescents’ sleep experiences, especially how these experiences emerge, change, and matter for development across diverse contexts.
We invite empirical papers using quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, longitudinal, intensive longitudinal, multimodal, community-engaged, and youth participatory approaches. We particularly welcome theoretical or conceptual papers that advance culturally and contextually relevant models of adolescent sleep, as well as systematic reviews, scoping reviews, and meta-analyses that consolidate evidence and identify priorities for the field.
Topics of interest for this call for papers include but are not restricted to:
- Adolescents’ lived experiences and meanings of sleep, sleep loss, fatigue, bedtime routines, regularity, and recovery across diverse cultures and contexts.
- Individual (e.g., pubertal development, circadian changes) and contextual (e.g., family, peers, school start times, digital environments, neighborhoods, and cultures) factors that shape adolescents’ sleep experiences and routines
- Changes in adolescents’ sleep experiences across daily, seasonal, pubertal, and developmental time, including school weeks, family transitions, migration, and immigration.
- Links between nuanced sleep experiences and adolescents’ academic functioning, brain development, mental health, emotion regulation, social relationships, and behavioral adjustment.
- Mechanisms and moderators connecting multidimensional sleep constructs (e.g., duration, quality, alertness, regularity) with adolescent development across geographic, socioeconomic, racial/ethnic, and cultural contexts.
- Studies integrating surveys, interviews, diaries, ecological momentary assessment, actigraphy, wearables, biological data, school records, social media data, or other data sources.
Paper types eligible for this special issue:
- Theoretical or conceptual papers that develop, extend, or test culturally grounded and contextually sensitive models of adolescent sleep and development.
- Systematic reviews, scoping reviews, and meta-analyses that synthesize how cultures and contexts shape adolescent sleep, sleep disparities, and developmental outcomes.
- Empirical research papers using quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, longitudinal, intensive longitudinal, multimodal, experimental, community-engaged, or youth participatory approaches.
Guest Editors:
Dr. Mingjun Xie
Beijing Normal University,
China
Dr. Jinjin Yan
The Chinese University of Hong Kong,
Hong Kong
Dr. Yijie Wang
Michigan State University,
United States
Keywords:
Academic functioning; adolescence; behavioral adjustment; cultural diversity; developmental change; mental health; multimethod research; physical health; sleep health.
Submission Guidelines/Instructions:
All abstract information must be submitted through this Google Form.
- Title
- Authors’ names, email addresses, and affiliations
- Abstract: Include a brief description of the introduction, methods, and preliminary results. The submission may include up to 1 single-spaced page of main text, up to 1 page of references, and 1–2 tables or figures.
- Provide a brief literature review that identifies gaps in existing literature and establishes the rationale for your study; state the study aims and research questions; provide an overview of the method, including participants, data sources, measures, and procedures as relevant; and describe major findings. Please ensure that you:
- Explain how your research questions are relevant to adolescence and the special issue topic.
- Explain how the research methods used to address those questions are relevant to adolescents and the special issue topic.
- Provide information about the sociocultural, political, economic, and educational contexts in which adolescents are embedded.
- Discuss and interpret your findings using a cultural-asset framework rather than a deficit framework.
- Provide a one-paragraph explanation of how your study aligns with the special issue call.
- Provide a researcher reflexivity statement describing the positionality of the authors.
All inquiries can be emailed to jrayouthsleep@gmail.com.
Abstracts must be submitted through the Google Form by November 30, 2026 to be considered: Google Form Submission.
The Guest Editors will review abstracts and notify authors of manuscript invitation decisions by January 15, 2027. Full manuscripts are due by June 15, 2027.
Important Dates:
- Call for Special Issue: August 30, 2026
- Abstract Submission: November 30, 2026
- Special Issue Editors Invite Selected Authors to Submit Full Manuscript: January 15, 2027
- Full Manuscript Submission: June 15, 2027
- Initial Manuscript Decisions (After Peer Review): September 15, 2027
- Revised Manuscript Submission: December 15, 2027
- Final Decisions on Manuscripts: March 15, 2028
- Special Issue Published: May 30, 2028