Student Sleep Patterns During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Links with Depressive Symptoms, Loneliness, and Academic Engagement

• In Event: Sleep During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence Among Youth, Adolescents, and Parents

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has had wide-reaching effects, spanning across physical, mental, and academic well-being, that have been documented across high school and college students (Tasso et al., 2021). Sleep is an important biological function that is essential for day-to-day functioning and coping. Importantly, many adolescents reported experiencing sleep problems during the pandemic (Ulrich et al., 2021), which have been linked with negative developmental outcomes, including depressive symptoms, loneliness, and academic problems (Alimoradi et al., 2021; Scotta et al., 2022). However, not all youth experienced problematic sleep during this time. Thus, it is critical that research investigates how unique sleep patterns during COVID-19 map onto various indices of well-being (e.g., emotional, academic, social) during and following the peak of the pandemic.
Participants were 552 late adolescents (Mage=19.81; 58% female; 42% White; 19% Asian; 16% Latinx) who completed an online survey in Fall 2021. Students were asked to reflect on a range of behaviors and emotions that they experienced during the peak of COVID-19 in their geographic area (November 2020-March 2021, approximately 45.8% high school seniors) and during the past month (Fall 2021), including sleep problems (e.g., quality, latency, duration, efficiency, disturbances, medication use, daytime dysfunction; PSQI; Buysse et al., 1989), depressive symptoms (CES-D; Radloff, 1977; alpha>.92), loneliness (UCLA; Russell et al., 1996; alpha>.92), and academic engagement (BEC-SES; Li & Lerner, 2013; alpha>.86). Latent profile analysis was conducted in Mplus to identify subgroups of sleepers during the peak of COVID-19 and their relation to well-being during this same period (concurrent model) and over the past month (prospective model). Covariates included year of school, gender, race/ethnicity, parent education, state of residence during peak-COVID, and living situation.
Four subgroups of sleepers were identified (Figure 1): Optimal (e.g., below average on all sleep problems; 49% of sample), Insomnia/Medicated (e.g., highest latency, medication use, and sleep disturbances; 23% of sample), Average/Fair (e.g., near-average on all sleep scores; 16% of sample), and Low Duration (e.g., highest sleep duration problems; 12% of sample). Results from prediction models (Table 2) indicated that during the peak of COVID-19, depressive symptoms and loneliness were significantly higher in the Insomnia/Medicated and Low Duration subgroups compared to Average/Fair and Optimal sleepers. Academic engagement was higher for Optimal sleepers than all other profiles. In prospective models, academic engagement was highest among students who reported Average/Fair sleep during the peak of COVID-19, compared to all other profiles, controlling for peak-COVID academic engagement.
Findings highlight heterogeneity in adolescent sleep patterns during COVID-19. Students who reported less optimal sleep, particularly relating to quantity and quality, during the peak of the pandemic exhibited worse socioemotional and academic well-being, whereas average sleepers had the most improvement in academic engagement following the peak of COVID-19. Results from this study highlight the importance of adolescent sleep health during the pandemic and can inform intervention and prevention efforts that target multiple aspects of sleep tailored based upon students’ specific sleep patterns during this time.

Authors

• Jeri Sasser, Arizona State University
  Presenting Author

• Crystal Li, University of Texas at Austin

• Leah D Doane, Arizona State University

• Aaron Krasnow

• Vel Murugan

• Mitch Magee

• Joshua LaBaer