Associations of Social and Psychological Resources with Different Facets of Chronic Stress: A Study with Employed and Unemployed Adolescents

Association of emotional and behavioral problems with sleep disturbance among Chinese adolescents: The moderation effect of academic performance

BACKGROUND

This study aimed to explore the association of emotional and behavioral problems with sleep disturbance among Chinese adolescents, and to test whether these associations vary with adolescents' academic performance.

METHODS

Data were from the 2021 School-based Chinese Adolescents Health Survey using a multistage, stratified-cluster, and random-sampling method to collect information from 22,684 middle school students in Guangdong Province, China.

RESULTS

Emotional problems (aOR = 1.34, 95 % CI = 1.32-1.36), conduct problems (aOR = 1.19, 95 % CI = 1.16-1.21), hyperactivity (aOR = 1.35, 95 % CI = 1.33-1.37), and peer problems (aOR = 1.06, 95 % CI = 1.04-1.09) were significantly associated with the increased risk of sleep disturbance among middle school students in Guangdong Province. The prevalence of sleep disturbance among adolescents was 29.4 %. There were significant interactions of emotional problems/conduct problems/peer problems/prosocial behavior with academic performance on sleep disturbance. Further stratification analyses by academic performance showed that adolescents with self-reported good academic performance had a higher risk of sleep disturbance than those students with self-reported average or poor academic performance.

LIMITATIONS

This study only included school students and used the cross-sectional design to preclude causality determination.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest that emotional and behavioral problems elevate the risk of sleep disturbance in adolescents. Adolescent academic performance plays a modulating role in these above-mentioned significant associations for sleep disturbance.

Serial Mediation Model of Social Capital Effects over Academic Stress in University Students

Background: Although several studies have shown that social capital and social support decreases academic stress (AS), there has been lack of atheoretical model to explain how this occurs. This study aims to verify a model that explains the effect of bonding social capital (BSC) over academic stress psychological symptoms (PsyS), considering the multiple sequential mediation of socio-emotional support (SES), self-efficacy (sEffic) and self-esteem (sEstee). Methods: In a transversal study, 150 undergraduate volunteer students were recruited using non-probabilistic purposive sampling. Data were collected using psychological questionnaires and were processed through partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Results: Goodness of fit of the models (SRMR = 0.056, 0.057, Collapse

Key Words

• academic stress
• self-efficacy
• self-esteem
• social capital
• social support

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Grants

• BOL-01 International Science Programme at Uppsala University

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Affiliation(s)

Mario Eduardo Castro Torres Universidad Mayor Real y Pontificia de San Francisco Xavier de Chuquisaca, Casilla, Sucre 212, Bolivia
Pablo Marcelo Vargas-Piérola Independent Researcher, Calle Ladislao Cabrera, Sucre 482, Bolivia
Carlos F. Pinto Universidad Mayor Real y Pontificia de San Francisco Xavier de Chuquisaca, Casilla, Sucre 212, Bolivia
Rubén Alvarado Department of Public Health, School of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Valparaíso, Valparaíso 89000000, Chile

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Voluntary military service for Hungarian people who have lost their job due to the COVID-19 pandemic - A qualitative study

This qualitative study deals with the military service of people who have lost their job due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition to its basic tasks, the Hungarian Defence Forces has been the first to get involved in the Hungarian Government’s Economy Protection Action Plan by creating jobs for unemployed citizens. The study was conducted among those who had signed up for the temporarily created special volunteer reservist service aiming to find out what motivated them to choose the military career and what their future ambitions are. After the Grounded Theory analysis of 49 semi-structured interviews, it was found that the special volunteer service provides livelihood and daily routines for those involved but still they have very few plans for the future.

Unemployment and Psychological Distress among Young People during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Psychological Resources and Risk Factors

In the wake of COVID-19, unemployment and its potential deleterious consequences have attracted renewed interest. We examined (1) the association between unemployment, occurring upon the coronavirus outbreak, and psychological distress among Israeli young people (20–35-years-old); (2) the associations between various psychological resources/risk factors and psychological distress; and (3) whether these resources and risk factors were moderators in the unemployment-psychological distress link. A real-time survey based on snowball sampling was conducted during the month of April 2020 (N = 390). We employed hierarchical linear models to explore associations between unemployment, psychological resources, risk factors, and psychological distress. Unemployment was independently associated with greater psychological distress. Perceived trust, optimism, and sense of mastery decreased psychological distress, whereas financial strain and loneliness during the crisis increased this distress. The effect of unemployment on psychological distress did not depend on participants’ resource and risk factor levels. Policymakers must develop and extend health initiatives aimed at alleviating the mental health consequences of COVID-19-related unemployment and promote labor market interventions to help young job seekers integrate into employment. These measures, which are in line with the UN sustainable development goals, should be seen as an important route to promote public health.