Sleep, Affect, and Emotion Reactivity in First-Year College Students: A Daily Diary Study.

BACKGROUND: Sleep is an important factor in well-being, especially during the transition to college when academic and social commitments increase. Identifying factors that contribute to poor sleep (including short duration and increased variability in duration) can support development of interventions. Affect and emotion reactivity are factors that could contribute to sleep, and have not been studied in relation to sleep variables among first-year college students during their adjustment to the college environment. This adjustment might be difficult for some students, and therefore elicit affect fluctuations that contribute to poor sleep. Alternatively, sleep could contribute to daily affect. The present daily diary study examined bidirectional relations between daily sleep and affect, as well as between emotion reactivity and sleep (duration and variability) and affect (daily and overall variability) in first-year college students. METHOD: First-year college students (n = 244; 86.1% female) completed a baseline survey including measures of emotion reactivity and anxiety and depressive symptoms, followed by 7 days of a once-per-day diary, reporting on their affect and sleep duration. RESULTS: On days when individuals reported increased sleep duration, they also tended to experience greater positive affect the following day (p = .01). Those who experienced high levels of emotion reactivity also experienced more negative affect (p < .001) and negative affect variability (p < .001). CONCLUSION: Emotion reactivity might identify college students who experience more negative affect and are possibly at risk to develop mental health disorders. The importance of sleep health should continue to be emphasized to students as they transition to college.

Daily relations between nap occurrence, duration, and timing and nocturnal sleep patterns in college students.

OBJECTIVE/DESIGN: Sleep patterns change during college, and students may nap to compensate for lost sleep. Despite the increased prevalence of napping among students, few studies have investigated daily relations between napping and nocturnal sleep, as well as how timing of naps and nocturnal sleep might influence one another. The present study used daily diaries to capture the occurrence, timing, and duration of napping and relation to nocturnal sleep. SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: Daily diary data, collected for 4-7 days, from 654 college students from a mid-sized midwestern university (81.5% female). MEASUREMENT: Participants reported nightly sleep durations, bedtimes, and wake times as well as nap durations and nap start times. RESULTS: Multilevel modeling (MLM) and multi-level logistic regressions revealed bidirectional relations between nocturnal sleep and napping. Regarding nocturnal sleep and its relation to next day napping, nocturnal sleep (including shorter duration and later bedtime) was associated with increased odds of napping and longer napping the following day. Shorter sleep duration was also associated with taking an earlier nap, while later bedtime was associated with a later nap the following day. Regarding napping and its association with same-night nocturnal sleep, taking a nap was associated with longer sleep duration that night, however, later nap start times and longer nap durations were associated with later bedtimes that night. CONCLUSIONS: Findings provide evidence for bidirectional associations between napping and nocturnal sleep. Future studies are needed to explore how naps could be optimized to promote nocturnal sleep among college students, as well as for whom naps might be most beneficial.

An ecological model of weight gain among school-age children.

OBJECTIVE: Childhood obesity rates remain historically high in the United States. One way to conceptualize the many factors that contribute to obesity is through the use of an ecological model. There is a particular need to adapt and test this type of comprehensive model among vulnerable racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups. METHOD: Using a large sample of U.S. youth (n = 8,225) drawn from the ECLS-K:2011, this project applied an ecological model of childhood obesity from kindergarten to second grade, including factors such as child physical activity, child screen time, child bedtime, family physical activity, family food insecurity, family meals, and neighborhood safety. The contributions of each of these factors across racial/ethnic, socioeconomic, and income-to-needs groups were examined concurrently and longitudinally. RESULTS: Among the full sample, the largest standardized effect on weight was for income-to-needs ratio. Moving from above to below 200% of the poverty line resulted in an increase of .12 standard deviations in BMIz. Multigroup analyses indicated that there was only a significant difference in model fit based on race/ethnicity. Among Latino youth, income-to-needs ratio was a significant negative predictor of kindergarten BMIz; however, this effect was not significant among Black/African American youth. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, income-to-needs ratio emerged as the strongest link to obesity among the early elementary school years; this was particularly present among Latino youth. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Life Interrupted: Family Routines Buffer Stress during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Adoption of certain behavioral and social routines that organize and structure the home environment may help families navigate the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. The current cross-sectional study aimed to assess family routines prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic and examine associations with individual and family well-being. Using a national sample, 300 caregivers of children ages 6-18 were surveyed using Amazon Mechanical Turk platform during the first three months of COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Caregivers reported on family demographics, COVID-19-related stress, engagement in family routines (prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic), stress mindset, self-efficacy, and family resiliency. Overall, families reported engaging in fewer routines during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to prior to the pandemic. COVID-19-related stress was highest in low-income families, families of healthcare workers, and among caregivers who had experienced the COVID-19 virus. Moreover, COVID-19-related stress was negatively related to self-efficacy, positively related to an enhancing stress mindset, and negatively related to family resilience. Engagement in family routines buffered relations between COVID-19-related stress and family resilience, such that COVID-19-related stress was not associated with lower family resilience among families that engaged in high levels of family routines. Results suggest that family routines were challenging to maintain in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, but were associated with better individual and family well-being during this period of acute health, economic, and social stress.