University Students’ Academic Functioning and Sleep Behaviors: An Examination of Directionality of Effects across Two Semesters

• In Event: 2-186 - Supporting the Whole Student: Multiple Pathways to Academic Achievement

Integrative Statement

Emerging adults at university must balance social, academic, and personal demands as they navigate their university careers. Sleep is an important human behavior that is implicated in many aspects of psychosocial functioning; yet university students often compromise on sleep to pursue other goals (e.g., socializing with friends, academics). Findings regarding the association between sleep and academic performance are mixed and the directionality of effects between these two constructs is more often assumed than empirically tested. Furthermore, although grade point average has been the most dominant index of academics, there is a need to explore other aspects of university students’ academic functioning. The purpose of the present study, therefore, was to examine the direction of effects between three indices of academic functioning and several sleep behaviors among a sample of emerging adults at university, across two semesters.

Participants were 154 university students (67.8% female; Mean age = 20.02, SD = 1.71) from a small, liberal arts university, who completed self-report measures via an online survey at two different times: between February and March 2017 (spring semester) at Time 1 and between October and November (fall semester) at Time 2. Academic functioning was operationalized as: academic procrastination (6 items; Procrastination Scale; Lay, 1986), conscientiousness (10 items; Big Five Inventory; John & Srivastava, 1999), and the fulfillment of basic psychological needs within an academic setting (11 items; Deci et al., 2001). Sleep behaviors were: week and weekend sleep duration, week bedtimes, sleep disturbances, daytime dysfunction, perceived sleep quality, and sleep latency (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index; Buysse et al., 1989). Data were analyzed using autoregressive cross-lagged models in AMOS (version 25). All models controlled for: age, gender, family income, level of study, self-esteem, diagnosis of mental illness, daily hassles, and social desirability. All models had good fit.

Results showed that academic procrastination predicted both decreased sleep duration (β = -.204, p = .037) and later bedtimes (β = .242, p = .008) during the week. Conscientiousness predicted increased sleep duration (β = .217, p = .028) and earlier bedtimes (β = -.221, p = .017) during the week. Furthermore, perceived fulfillment of basic psychological needs predicted increased week sleep duration (β = .260, p = .006); earlier week bedtimes (β = -.188, p = .037); decreased daytime dysfunction (β = -.155, p = .047) and decreased poor sleep quality (β = -.207, p = .020), one semester later. Conversely, none of the sleep behaviors predicted subsequent changes in academic functioning.

Findings confirmed significant unidirectional effects from academic functioning to sleep (sleep did not predict subsequent changes in academic functioning). Thus, students who struggle to maintain a positive academic environment may be at an increased risk for poor sleep. Programs that promote optimal academic contexts (e.g., time management skills) may foster good sleep hygiene, which, in turn, may contribute to improvements in sleep behaviors among university students.

Author

• Royette Tavernier, Wesleyan University
  Presenting Author