Podium Presentation - 10 minutes International Positive Psychology Association 7th IPPA World Congress 2021

Mindfulness and resilience as personal resources: preventing daytime sleepiness among working college students (#59)

Lisa L Scherer 1 , Shaina A Kumar 2 , Emily A McQuade 1 , Rae A Morales 1
  1. University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, NE, United States
  2. Psychology, University of Nebraska Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

 

Background

 Daytime sleepiness among college students is a global problem resulting in compromised academic performance, health, and life satisfaction, as well as increased risk for driving accidents and depression (Hershner & Chervin, 2014; Kabrita et al, 2014). Research has typically focused on adolescents and improving their knowledge of sleep hygiene (Hein et al., 2020). Few have acknowledged the role of the increasing high demands confronting college students managing work and school responsibilities as contributing to their sleepiness (Cunningham, 2019).

Hypotheses/Research Questions

 Utilizing the Job-Demands Resources (J-DR) theory (Bakker & Demerouti, 2017), we hypothesized that mindfulness and resilience are personal resources that would mitigate the demands of work and school on daytime sleepiness.

Sample Characteristics and Sample Size

 The sample included 152 (Mage = 20.39; SD = 2.42) employed college students from a U.S. university who were predominantly female (80.5%), Caucasian (67.8%), full-time students (86.2%). Half worked over 20 hours per week (M = 22.7, SD = 9.67), and 31.1% reported being first-generation college students.

Design

 Data on sleepiness, resilience, mindfulness, and total work and school hours were collected via an anonymous online survey.

Results

 Moderation analyses using Hayes’ PROCESS macro (Hayes, 2017) and examinations of the Johnson-Neyman regions of significance revealed the link between total work and school demands and daytime sleepiness was buffered (i.e., no longer significant at p < .05) when participants reported slightly above average levels of mindfulness. Likewise, the link between total work and school demands and daytime sleepiness was buffered when participants reported slightly above average levels of resilience.

Scientific Contribution

 We integrate two positive psychology constructs with the expanded JD-R theory (Baker & Demerouti, 2017), demonstrating that mindfulness and resilience are personal resources that can be mobilized by working college students to reduce the effects of work and school demands on sleepiness.


 

  • Keywords: Business and Organizations, Coping and Emotion Regulation, Health and Medicine, Mindfulness, Resilience and Posttraumatic Growth