An Exploratory Analysis of the Effect of Demographic Features on Sleeping Patterns and Academic Stress in Adolescents in China

Alessandro Carollo, Weiyi Chai, Elizabeth Halstead, Dagmara Dimitriou and Gianluca Esposito
Additional contact information
Alessandro Carollo: Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, 31 Corso Angelo Bettini, 38068 Rovereto, Italy
Weiyi Chai: Sleep Education and Research Laboratory, UCL Institute of Education, London WC1H 0AA, UK
Elizabeth Halstead: Sleep Education and Research Laboratory, UCL Institute of Education, London WC1H 0AA, UK
Dagmara Dimitriou: Sleep Education and Research Laboratory, UCL Institute of Education, London WC1H 0AA, UK
Gianluca Esposito: Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, 31 Corso Angelo Bettini, 38068 Rovereto, Italy

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 12, 1-13

Abstract: Adolescents typically engage in unhealthy lifestyle habits including short sleep and high academic stress. These in turn may have serious impacts on their development. The present study examines the effect of demographic characteristics on sleep patterns and academic stress in adolescents. A sample of 244 (119 females) junior high school adolescents aged between 11 and 16 were recruited from China. The Student Life Stress Questionnaire and the School Sleep Habits Survey were used to assess participants’ sleep habits and academic stress. Multipair and corrected pairwise Kruskal–Wallis tests were conducted to assess the effect of school grade, gender, academic performance level, living situation, single child status, and parental education on adolescents’ sleeping patterns and academic stress. Significant changes in facets of sleeping patterns emerged when examining groups of students in terms of school grade, living situation, and single-child status. Furthermore, caffeine consumption was found to be significantly higher in males, in students with poorer academic performances, and in single-child adolescents. Ultimately, academic stress was modulated by adolescents’ school grade, academic performances, living situation, and single-child status. Developmental trajectories in sleep patterns together with differential exposure to stressors and adopted coping mechanisms are discussed in the manuscript.

Keywords: adolescents; sleeping patterns; academic stress; demographics; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/12/7032/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/12/7032/ (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:19:y:2022:i:12:p:7032-:d:834251

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 ().