Effects of College Students’ Self-efficacy on Sleep Problems: Chain Mediating Role of Self-esteem and Social Adaptation

Abstract

Background: Sleep problems have increasingly become a public health problem. How to improve sleep problems has become the focus of many people’s concerns. Meanwhile, sleep problems are more common in children and adolescents, with prevalence ranging from 11% to 47%. Therefore, how to help college students improve sleep problems has become a problem worth studying. Objective: The present study focused on intrinsic psychological factors to explore how college students’ self-efficacy, self-esteem, and social adaptations all work together to influence sleep problems and analyze the chain mediating effect of self-esteem and social adaptation in the influence of self-efficacy on sleep problems of college students. Methods: Eighty-seven college students were conveniently chosen to engage in a survey about self-efficacy, sleep problems, self-esteem and social adaptation. Results: (1) Correlation analysis showed that, the relationships between each pair of self-efficacy, self-esteem and social adaptation were significantly positive. Self-esteem and social adaptation were all negatively related to sleep problems. (2) Chain mediating effect analysis showed that, the chain mediating effect of self-esteem and social adaptation between self-efficacy and sleep problems was significant. Conclusion: The results significantly revealed that self-efficacy affected sleep problems not only directly but through the chain mediating roles of self-esteem and social adaptation, which enriched the understanding of the factors that influence sleep problems and provided important guidance and suggestions for improving college students’ sleep problems through the enhancement of self-efficacy, self-esteem and social adaptation.