Sleep as a mediator of the relationship between social class and health in higher education students

Abstract

A substantial body of research indicates that higher education students from lower social class backgrounds tend to have poorer health than those from higher social class backgrounds. To investigate sleep as a potential mediator of this relationship, online survey responses of students from five large Australian universities, one Irish university and one large Australian technical college were analysed in three studies (Study 1 N = 628; Study 2 N = 376; Study 3 N = 446). The results revealed that sleep quality, sleep duration, sleep disturbances, pre-sleep worries and sleep schedule variability mediated the relationship between social class and physical and mental health. Sleep remained a significant mediator when controlling for related variables and other mediators. Thus, the findings suggest that sleep partly explains social class differences in health. We discuss the importance of addressing sleep issues among students from lower social class backgrounds.

The Value and Optimization Strategies of Integrating Curriculum Civics into Physical Education in Colleges and Universities

“…Mcguffog, R et al showed that tertiary students of lower social class tended to perform less well in terms of health, exploring the mediating role of sleep in this, conducting three studies including online survey responses from 628, 376 and 446 students from large Australian universities, universities in Ireland, and a large Australian Institute of Technology, respectively [5].Lynch, S et al stated that Higher education, physical education provides students with the opportunity to develop meaning and value for their sporting experiences. However, this is a less researched area in the field of education, aiming to explore what college students find meaningful in physical education [6].Serra, P. et al selected 4,146 students from 39 schools in three regions of Spain, 50.2% of whom were female, with a mean age of 16.82 years and a standard deviation of 0.837, and examined the physical education and sport science in Spanish gender social representations in higher education [7].Garcí a-Rico, L et al In order to understand the contribution of service learning to the improvement of Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) programs, as well as to the awareness and sensitivity to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).…”