Poster #167 - Cultural Orientation and Sleep Quality Among East Asian College Students in the United States

• In Event: 3-159 - Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Section - Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Integrative Statement

Poor sleep has negative repercussions during adolescence and young adulthood (Gradisar et al., 2011; Perlus et al., 2018). Although poor sleep quality is particularly pervasive during college as youth experience high academic and social demands coupled with flexible schedules (Lund et al., 2010), little is known about the role of culture in college students’ experience of sleep. Given increasing multiculturalism in U.S. colleges, it is important to understand the role of culture in college students’ sleep. The purpose of this study was to examine how cultural orientation is associated with sleep quality in undergraduate students in the United States with East Asian backgrounds.
Acculturation literature suggests that there are four ways in which individuals acclimate to their host country: integration (or biculturalism), assimilation, separation, and marginalization (Berry, 1997). Empirical studies demonstrate that marginalization is associated with detrimental psychological outcomes while integration is associated with favorable outcomes (Cheng et al., 2014). However, research thus far has not examined sleep as an outcome of acculturation styles or cultural orientation.
Our participants were 269 Chinese (49%) and Korean (51%) undergraduates with domestic (60%) and international (40%) status (age range=18-25 years, Mage= 20.55, SD=1.93, 77% female). Sleep quality was assessed using the well-validated Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) (Buysse, 1988); a score of 5 or above is considered poor sleep quality. Acculturation style was assessed using adapted versions of the self-report Multiethnic Identity Measure (Phinney, 1992); scoring followed the Bicultural Orientation Model developed by Torres (1999) and replicated by Lee and Davis (2000). Participants were placed into one of four cultural orientation categories: Bicultural (24.1%), Asian (24.8%), American (19.2%), or Marginal (32%).
Results revealed that 70% of the participants were poor-quality-sleepers (M=6.36, SD=3.02). Additionally, self-reported sleep duration was low with an average of 6 hours and 51 minutes, which is less than the recommended 7-9 hours for this age group (National Sleep Foundation; Hirshkowitz et al., 2015). Multiple regression models were run to examine whether cultural orientation is associated with sleep quality, controlling for gender, year in college, and socioeconomic status. Marginal orientation was marginally associated with poor sleep quality when compared with bicultural orientation, b(SE)=.88(.49), p=.074. Moreover, marginal orientation was significantly associated with poor sleep quality when compared with Asian orientation, b(SE)=1.33(.49), p=.007.
In sum, the results suggest that U.S. college students with East Asian backgrounds experience poor sleep. Additionally, in line with previous acculturation literature, these results demonstrate that marginally-oriented youth experience worse outcomes in terms of sleep quality. However, the results indicate that Asian-oriented youth may experience more optimal sleep quality rather than bicultural youth when compared to marginal youth, contradicting previous acculturation studies that find that bicultural orientation is associated with the best outcomes. These findings have important implications for adolescent and young adult sleep research and interventions, suggesting that culture does play a functional role in sleep quality among East Asian college students.

Authors

• Maira Karan, University of California, Los Angeles
  Presenting Author

• Heejung Park, Bryn Mawr College
  Non-Presenting Author