DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/NJH1-DW03
Author ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/0009-0005-8647-5801
Defense Date
2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Dr. Rosalie Corona
Second Advisor
Dr. Jennifer Rohan
Third Advisor
Dr. Chelsea Williams
Fourth Advisor
Dr. Kevin Allison
Fifth Advisor
Dr. Gabriela León-Pérez
Abstract
College students experienced a multitude of disruptions to their daily life, and changes to their physical (i.e., sleep quality) and mental health (e.g., anxiety and depressive symptoms) because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Though the field has identified the factors that have contributed to negative physical and mental health changes, there remains much to be known about social and cultural protective factors that could buffer the negative role of the COVID-19 pandemic on Latinx college students. The current study contributed to the literature on the mental health outcomes of Latinx college students by identifying a possible mediator and moderators between the association of COVID-19 experiences and COVID-19 racial/ethnic bias and Latinx college student’s mental health outcomes. The study explored the inter-relations between COVID-19 factors, social support and familismo values, mental health, and sleep. The study’s first aim sought to explore the mediating role of sleep quality in the relationship between COVID-19 factors (i.e., experiences and racial/ethnic bias) and mental health outcomes. The second aim compared two moderation-and-mediation models to assess for the potential differences in strength of two moderators (i.e., perceived social support and familismo emotional support) on the conditional direct effect of COVID-19 related factors and students’ mental health outcomes, while holding sleep quality as a mediator.
Participants included 490 Latinx college students (Mage = 19.1, 72.8% female, 61.1% freshmen). Analyses included a mediation model and two moderation-and-mediation analyses estimated through structural equation modeling using data collected from the Sleep in Emerging-adulthood and Stress-response to Acculturation (SIESTA) study. Results showed that the overall hypothesized models for all study aims had adequate model fit. Findings revealed that sleep quality mediated the association between COVID-19 experiences and COVID-19 racial/ethnic bias with mental health outcomes (Aim 1), such that more COVID-19 experiences, and more COVID-19 racial/ethnic bias, were associated with poorer sleep quality, and, in turn, more severe mental health outcomes. Contrary to the hypotheses, there were no significant moderation effects found for perceived social support nor familismo emotional support on the direct association between COVID-19 factors and mental health outcomes while significant mediations were observed between COVID-19 experiences, COVID-19 racial/ethnic bias, and mental health outcomes, through sleep quality (Aim 2, Model A and B).
Overall, the findings suggested that experiencing more COVID-19 experiences and more COVID-19 racial/ethnic bias, such as increased exposure to the virus and perceiving more COVID-19 racial/ethnic bias, were associated with worse sleep quality, and, in turn, associated with greater severity of mental health outcomes. Significant associations between variables of interest are also explained. Implications for possible interventions to support Latinx college students’ mental health adjustment, and recommendations for future research are also discussed.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
5-28-2024
Included in
Clinical Psychology Commons, Health Psychology Commons, Multicultural Psychology Commons