Associations of Psychological Distress, Sleep Pattern, and SelfEsteem among University Adolescents: Implication for Psychological Intervention

Abstract

Introduction: Psychological distress is becoming a common health problem among university students. There is limited information in this regard in Ethiopia. The aim of this research was to inspect the correlates of psychological distress psychological distress, sleep, and self-esteem among adolescents living in Ethiopia. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted. Four hundred students were participated in the study. Simple random sampling technique was applied to select the study participants. Self-Reporting Questionnaire-20(SRQ-20) was used to assess the mental distress and a variety of measures, including psychological distress, sleep behaviors, and self-esteem were employed. Results: The research findings show significant correlations between social media use, bedtime fears/worries and insomnia, and higher levels of psychological distress among adolescents. The research results show optimistic correlations between self-esteem and lower levels of psychological distress. An assessment of sex differences indicated that girls tended to report higher levels of sleep, whereas boys explained higher levels of social media use and psychological distress. The correlational investigation of this study showed that insomnia; sleep duration, social media/like facebook, telegram, instagram, tweeter, you tube, viber, watching television, listening to music, email tweeter etc. use at the sleep beginning and bedtime fears and trepidation are all correlates of psychological distress. Conclusion: About one fifth of the students were found to be psychologically distressed because of excessive use of social media. Designing preventions and treatments programs addressing the identified factors is important.