Perceived Stress Mediates the Associations between Sleep Quality and Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression among College Nursing Students

Abstract

Mental illnesses, such as anxiety and depression, are top concerns among college students. Poor sleep quality intensifies the risk of mental illnesses. However, the mechanism for the associations between sleep quality and mental illnesses in college students is not well understood. Online surveys were collected with 242 undergraduate nursing students at a public university in the northeast United States. Multivariate linear regression models suggested that poor sleep quality was associated with an increased risk of symptoms of anxiety (β = 1.08, p < 0.01) and depression (β = 1.00, p < 0.01). Perceived stress mediated the association between sleep quality and symptoms of anxiety by 85.3 %, and mediated the association between sleep quality and symptoms of depression by 60.0 %. This study suggested that in addition to sleep promotion, effective interventions to identify unique stressors in nursing students and facilitate the development of appropriate coping strategies are needed to enhance their mental health and well-being.

Keywords: anxiety; depression; perceived stress; sleep quality.