Department of Education Policy and Leadership, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China; Department of Educational, Shanxi Datong University, Datong, China.
Department of Education Policy and Leadership, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Acta Psychol (Amst). 2023 Sep;239:104014. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2023.104014. Epub 2023 Aug 25.
Growing competition in tight job market and academic excellence as a social norm in Asian culture have made Chinese college students burdened with immense academic stress.
This study aimed to explore the associations between academic stress and depression, and the mediating roles of negative affect and sleep quality, as well as the moderating role of social support in the relationship between negative affect and sleep quality.
A convenience sample of 221 male and 479 female college students aged between 17 and 25 completed questionnaires on academic stress, depression, negative affect, sleep quality and social support.
Results indicated that academic stress could not only directly affect depression (b = 0.31, p < 001), but also affect depression through the mediation role of negative affect and sleep quality. The chain mediating effects includes three paths, namely, the mediating role of negative affect (indirect effect = 0.21, percentage of total effect = 69.58 %), the mediating role of sleep quality (indirect effect = 0.06, percentage of total effect = 21.03 %), and the chain mediating role of negative affect and sleep quality (indirect effect = 0.06, percentage of total effect = 19.86 %). Social support moderated the adverse influence of negative affect on sleep quality. Social support decreases the impact of negative affect on sleep quality. Specifically, the association between negative affect and sleep quality was stronger for college students with low (b = 0.44, p < 0.001) social support than those with high (b = 0.32, p < 0.001) social support.
The results advanced our understanding of how academic stress affects college students' depression. These findings provide implications on the cultivation of stress coping strategies, promotion of emotion regulation skills, exaltation of sleep quality, and improvement of the social support level aiming for future depression preventions and interventions. Specific measures include setting up psychological health courses, teaching emotion management strategies, and establishing web-based programme steming from acceptance and commitment therapy. It should be noted that the cross-sectional design means the causal associations among the variables could not be determined.
在竞争激烈的就业市场和亚洲文化中追求卓越学业的社会规范的双重压力下，中国大学生背负着巨大的学业压力。
本研究旨在探讨学业压力与抑郁之间的关系，以及负性情绪和睡眠质量在其中的中介作用，同时还考察社会支持在负性情绪和睡眠质量关系中的调节作用。
采用方便取样法，共选取 221 名男生和 479 名女生，年龄在 17 至 25 岁之间，完成学业压力、抑郁、负性情绪、睡眠质量和社会支持问卷。
结果表明，学业压力不仅可以直接影响抑郁（b=0.31，p<0.001），还可以通过负性情绪和睡眠质量的中介作用影响抑郁。连锁中介效应包含三条路径，即负性情绪的中介作用（间接效应=0.21，总效应的百分比为 69.58%）、睡眠质量的中介作用（间接效应=0.06，总效应的百分比为 21.03%）和负性情绪和睡眠质量的连锁中介作用（间接效应=0.06，总效应的百分比为 19.86%）。社会支持调节了负性情绪对睡眠质量的不良影响。社会支持降低了负性情绪对睡眠质量的影响。具体来说，对于社会支持水平较低的大学生（b=0.44，p<0.001），负性情绪与睡眠质量之间的关联强于社会支持水平较高的大学生（b=0.32，p<0.001）。
研究结果增进了我们对学业压力如何影响大学生抑郁的理解。这些发现为培养应对压力的策略、促进情绪调节技能、提高睡眠质量以及提高社会支持水平提供了启示，以期预防和干预未来的抑郁。具体措施包括开设心理健康课程、教授情绪管理策略以及建立基于接受和承诺疗法的网络计划。需要注意的是，横断面设计意味着不能确定变量之间的因果关系。
