Trauma, Sleep and Mental Health Problems in Low-Income Young Adults

Rachel A. Fusco, Yan Yuan, Hyunji Lee and Christina E. Newhill
Additional contact information
Rachel A. Fusco: School of Social Work, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
Yan Yuan: School of Social Work, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
Hyunji Lee: School of Social Work, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
Christina E. Newhill: School of Social Work, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 3, 1-10

Abstract: Low-income young adults are more likely to have exposure to trauma, which increases risk for mental health problems. Although adequate sleep promotes good health, people with histories of trauma are more likely to have sleep problems. The current study explored whether poor sleep mediated the relationship between trauma exposure and mental health. A sample of 143 low-income 18–24-year-old young adults completed depression, anxiety, and trauma exposure measures and wore sleep monitors for four nights. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine both direct and indirect effects of variables. Results showed that higher trauma exposure was associated with depression and anxiety. Mean sleep hours per night was fewer than six, far below recommended guidelines for optimal health and functioning. Fewer sleep hours partially mediated the relationship between both trauma exposure and depression and anxiety, and the direct effect from trauma remained significant after adjusting for the partial mediation from sleep.

Keywords: anxiety; depression; trauma exposure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/3/1145/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/3/1145/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:3:p:1145-:d:488496

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().