Abstract
Sleep problems and poorer well-being may be particularly salient for Latino/a college students as they tend to experience sociocultural adjustments during this transitory time. Social connections, a correlate of health, change moment-to-moment for college students and may be experienced differently for people who more strongly endorse horizontal collectivist cultural values. We used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to examine how in-the-moment social connections influence in-the-moment health, and how horizontal collectivism moderates the moment-to-moment associations. Self-identified Latino/a college students (n = 221) completed a demographic information and cultural values questionnaire and then responded to EMA measures on their social connections, affective and subjective well-being, and sleep for 14 consecutive days. Better in-the-moment social connections associated with better health. Horizontal collectivism moderated some, but not all associations between social connections and health. Social connections are multidimensional and differently predict in-the-moment health among Latino/a college students who more strongly endorse horizontal collectivistic values. We discuss implications for identifying vulnerable well-being moments among this understudied population.
Highlights
College students often experience poor sleep [1,2,3] and mood disorders, such as depression and anxiety [4, 5]
We focused on social connections in this study given the importance of social relationships within Latino/a culture [12, 13]
Horizontal collectivism did not moderate the relationship between quality of social interaction and any of the outcomes
Summary
College students often experience poor sleep [1,2,3] and mood disorders, such as depression and anxiety [4, 5]. These problems may be especially salient for Latino/a students who often struggle with adjustment in college due to differences between their heritage culture and the dominant culture [6, 7]. We know little about Latino/a college students’ well-being and sleep as a function of their sociocultural experiences despite this being the fastest growing ethnic group in US colleges [8]. The purpose of this paper is to test social and cultural factors that relate to sleep, subjective health, and affective well-being among Latino/a college students.
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