Relationship Between Stressful Life Events and Sleep Quality: Rumination as a Mediator and Resilience as a Moderator

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between stressful life events and sleep quality and to probe the role of rumination and resilience in the relationship. Method: The Adolescent Self-Rating Life Events Checklist, Ruminative Responses Scale, Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale, and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index were used among 1,065 college students. Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) 20.0 and the SPSS macro Process, which were specifically developed for assessing complex models including both mediators and moderators, were used to analyze the data. Results: High scores of stressful life events predicted worse sleep quality. Rumination partially mediated the relations between stressful life events and sleep quality. Resilience moderated the direct and indirect paths leading from stressful life events to sleep quality. Conclusions: The results demonstrate that stressful life events can directly affect the sleep quality of college students and indirectly through rumination. Additionally, increasing psychological resilience could decrease both the direct effect and the indirect effect of stressful life events affecting sleep quality. The results of this study may contribute to a better understanding of the effects, as well as the paths and conditions, of stressful life events on sleep quality in college students. Moreover, these findings can provide constructive suggestions for improving college students’ sleep quality.

Stressors of COVID-19 and stress consequences: The mediating role of rumination and the moderating role of psychological support

“…For the first stage of the mediation process (i.e., stressors of COVID-19 → rumination), this study indicated that stressors of COVID-19 promoted the activation of rumination mechanisms. This finding is in line with prior literature on rumination and stress consequences, whereby rumination tendencies are partly mutable in response to stressful life events ( Li et al, 2019 , Liu and Wang, 2017 , Michl et al, 2013 ). Uncontrollable factors and stressors may create a dissonance between the ideal goal state and the reality state, leading to rumination ( Nolen-Hoeksema et al, 2008 ).…”

“…Participants rated each item on a four-point scale ranging from 1 (never) to 4 (always), with higher mean scores indicating higher levels of rumination. This scale has been used in the Chinese population (e.g., Chen et al, 2018 , Cui et al, 2017 , Li et al, 2019 , Wang et al, 2020b ​) and shown good reliability and validity.…”

“…Rumination has been documented to be influenced by perceived stress ( Chen and Huang, 2019 , Wang et al, 2019 ) and because attention increases under high levels of vigilance ( Qi & Gao, 2020 ), the cognitive behavior presents itself as a natural, but potentially dangerous, variable in models of stress consequences ( Nolen-Hoeksema et al, 2008 ) for adolescents ( Skitch & Abela, 2008 ). Specifically, rumination has been evidenced to be a mutable variable in response to stressful life events (e.g., Li et al, 2019 , Liu and Wang, 2017 , Michl et al, 2013 ) and can play a mediating role between changing stressors and their respective consequences, such as work stressors and impaired sleep (​ Berset, Elfering, Lüthy, Lüthi, & Semmer, 2011 ) and perceived stress and depression ( Wang et al, 2019 ). As COVID-19 brought about sudden changes to our social ecology, as well as great uncertainty regarding the impending future, rumination tendencies may increase in those who may not have otherwise be susceptible in response to more routine stressors.…”

Anxiety and Depression Symptoms of Patients in Fangcang Shelter Hospital During the COVID-19 Outbreak in China: a Web-Based Cross-Sectional Study

“…Sleep is an important time for the recuperation and rejuvenation of the brain. Unfortunately, a substantial body literature showed stressful life events and outbreaks of infectious disease including COVID-19 can affect the sleep quality [21,[26][27][28][29], 84.69% of the participants in our study with the poor sleep quality demonstrate it again. Using the correlation analysis, we also found levels of anxiety symptoms are associate with sleep quality in COVID-19 patients admitted to shelter Fangcang hospital.…”

The Relationship between Insecure Attachment to Depression: Mediating Role of Sleep and Cognitive Reappraisal

“…In addition, it is found that sleep can also affect the glymphatic system to clear the big molecules in the brain [8], and it is reported that glymphatic system might induce depression in Alzheimer's disease [9]. Our previous studies also reported that sleep is an important time for the recuperation and rejuvenation of the brain [10]. In all, sleep can induce many kinds of neurological and psychological diseases, such as emotion disorders, substance use, low academic performance, and physical dysfunctions [11].…”