Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University.
Health Psychol. 2013 Feb;32(2):212-22. doi: 10.1037/a0029007. Epub 2012 Jul 23.
We examined the mechanisms that underlie the observed relationships between loneliness and depressed mood and poor sleep quality in college students. This study was the first to investigate whether rumination and trait anxiety are psychological mechanisms that mediate this relationship.
In Study 1 (n = 1,244), using factor analysis with cross-sectional data, we established that loneliness and rumination are distinct constructs. We then collected survey data in two cross-sectional samples (ns = 300 and 218) and one prospective (n = 334) sample to test whether rumination and anxiety were mediators of the relationship between loneliness and depressed mood and poor sleep quality. Structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed relationships. Participants completed self-report measures of loneliness, rumination, trait anxiety, depressed mood, and sleep quality. In addition, measures of hostility, neuroticism, negative affect, and tobacco use were also assessed and tested as mediators, while social support was assessed and tested as a moderator.
Consistent across the three studies, we found that rumination and trait anxiety fully mediated the associations between loneliness and depressed mood as well as poor sleep quality; these relationships held after testing all other factors.
This study helps explain how loneliness dynamics relate to poor health and suggests specific points of departure for the development of interventions.
我们研究了孤独感与抑郁情绪和睡眠质量差之间的关系的潜在机制，这些关系在大学生中很常见。本研究首次探讨了反刍思维和特质焦虑是否是中介这种关系的心理机制。
在研究 1（n=1244）中，我们使用横断面数据的因子分析，确定孤独感和反刍思维是两个不同的概念。然后，我们在两个横断面样本（n=300 和 218）和一个前瞻性样本（n=334）中收集了调查数据，以检验反刍思维和焦虑是否是孤独感与抑郁情绪和睡眠质量差之间关系的中介因素。结构方程模型用于检验所提出的关系。参与者完成了孤独感、反刍思维、特质焦虑、抑郁情绪和睡眠质量的自我报告测量。此外，还评估和测试了敌意、神经质、负性情绪和吸烟等因素作为中介因素，而社会支持则被评估和测试为调节因素。
在三项研究中，我们发现反刍思维和特质焦虑完全中介了孤独感与抑郁情绪以及睡眠质量差之间的关系；在测试了所有其他因素后，这些关系仍然存在。
这项研究有助于解释孤独感的动态如何与健康不良相关，并为干预措施的发展提供了具体的起点。
