The multiple mediating effect of sleep quality and internet addiction between negative life events and mental health among college students

Abstract

Objective To explore the multiple mediating effect of sleep quality and internet addiction between negative life events and mental health among college students. Methods A cross-sectional study was used to investigate 733 college students with adolescent self-rating life events checklist, Pittsburgh sleep quality index, the general health questionnaire and internet addiction scale for Chinese revision.SPSS and Bootstrap method were used to test the hypothetical model. Results The scores of Negative life events, sleep quality, internet addiction and mental health were 46.0(33.0, 66.5), 5.0(3.0, 7.0), 44.0(37.0, 50.0) and 5.0(2.0, 9.0) respectively, and they were positively correlated with each other (r=0.39-0.55, P<0.01). Negative life events had a direct effect on mental health.The effect value was 0.013, and the effect size was 17.97%.The simple mediating effects of sleep quality and internet addiction between negative life events and mental health were significant.The effect values were 0.047 and 0.009, and the effect sizes were 64.85% and 11.94%, respectively.The chain mediating effect of sleep quality-internet addiction was also significant, and the effect value was 0.004 and the effect size was 5.24%. Conclusion Negative life events not only directly affect mental health in college students, but also indirectly affect their mental health through the multiple mediating effects of sleep quality and internet addiction. Key words: Negative life events; Sleep quality; Internet addiction; Mental health; Multiple mediating effect