O3286: School Start Times and Adolescent Behaviors in Kansas

Background: Research shows delaying school start times (STs) for secondary students has positive impacts on academic performance and social/emotional health leading to recommendations for delayed start times by the American Academy of Pediatrics. This study sought to evaluate the relationship between STs in Kansas and adolescent behaviors.

Methods: This cross-sectional study explores relationships between STs, mental health indicators, substance use, academic performance and crash data among high school students in Kansas. All data was sourced from publicly available datasets for the 2021-2022 school year for available counties (n=85). Sources included the Kansas Communities that Care survey, Kansas State Department of Education, and Kansas Department of Transportation. High school STs were averaged per county as minutes past midnight. Pearson’s correlation was used to measure relationships with a p-value threshold of p< 0.05. All analyses performed using R Statistical Software (v4.2.764; R Core Team 2021).

Results: The earliest ST across counties was 7:00am (0.3%, n=1), and the latest 8:35am (0.3%, n=1). The majority of teen crashes (60%, n=1,441) occurred in counties with STs before 8am with a significant negative correlation (r=-0.427, p=0.0001) found between average STs and accidents per county. For mental health and substance use indicators, a significant positive correlation was found between average ST and students reporting community-related protective factors (r=0.373, p=0.00046). For academic performance, a significant positive correlation was observed between average ST and attendance rates per county (r=0.55, p< 0.0001).

Conclusion: This study demonstrates earlier STs may have a negative impact on adolescent health. As the majority (60%) of teen car crashes occur in counties with early STs, later STs could potentially decrease the number of teen accidents. Additionally, delayed STs may positively impact adolescent community engagement, lowering their risk for violence and substance use. Furthermore, findings show a potential relationship in increased school attendance in counties with delayed STs. This study has several limitations. The inability to match STs with KCTC survey participants and unmeasured confounders like socioeconomic status may affect results. Additionally, data was taken from a pandemic-affected year, which likely confounded the results. Despite limitations, these findings demonstrate the need for further research to explore the benefits of later STs for adolescent health and safety in Kansas.