Sleep Quality, Sleep Habits, and the Role of Perceived Stress for Master's Students in Social Work"

Background: The extant literature has indicated high prevalence rates of poor sleep quality in professional graduate school students due to academic- and work-related stress. (Brick et al., 2010; Menon et al., 2015). Also, high levels of stress, including traumatic stress(Gavrieli et al., 2015), have been found to be associated with poor sleep quality, which is detrimental for immune function (Irwin et al., 1996) and psychological problems (Plicher et al., 1997), as well as substance use (Lund et al., 2010). However, little is known about sleep quality of graduate students in social work. Since master’s students in social work (MSW) have to complete academic course work and a field internship, they may also be prone to poor sleep quality and stress due to academic, work, and life imbalance. Thus, this study aimed to explore sleep quality and sleep habits of MSW students, and to investigate how their perceived stress is related to sleep quality, while taking sleep habits, lifetime traumatic stress, as well as socio-demographic characteristics into account.

Methods: This cross-sectional study used data collected from a survey conducted between March and April 2019. 193 MSW students enrolled in 2019 at the University of Pittsburgh participated in the study. The study assessed their sleep quality, sleep habits, perceived stress, and traumatic stress. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI; Buysse et al., 1989) measured sleep quality, andthe Sleep Hygiene Index (SHI; Mastin et al., 2006) assessed sleep habits and environments. Bivariate and multiple regression analyses were performed to identify significant associations between sleep quality, sleep habits, and perceived stress, after controlling for sleep habits, lifetime traumatic stress, and age.

Results: The mean age of the MSW students was 27.3 years (SD=6.19). The majority of the participants were female (83.9%), white (73.9%), and full-time (73.6%). 65% were employed, and 70% of them had part-time jobs. 70.1% had poor sleep quality, and poor sleep quality was associated with poor sleep habits (r=.415, p=.000), perceived stress (r=.384, p=.000), and lifetime traumatic stress (r=.319, p=.000). Poor sleep habits were associated with age (r=-.191, p=.01) and household income (r=-.0.24,p=.001). The multiple regression models were significant. An increase in perceived stress was found to be associated with an elevated risk for poor sleep quality (b=.18, p =.000), after controlling for lifetime traumatic stress and age. The final model included sleep habits as a control variable; the relationship of perceived stress to poor sleep quality weakened (b=.12, p =.001).

Conclusions and Implications: Results of this study showed that the MSW students had poor sleep quality, which was significantly associated with poor sleep habits, perceived stress, and lifetime traumatic stress. Interventions targeting sleep habits and environments, which can protect students from poor sleep quality, are needed. Providing them with resources for getting more and better sleep can help them alleviate their stress, thereby improving sleep quality. In essence, educating them how to have regular sleep habits and favorable sleep environments can help them maintain sleep health, as well as their overall health, even after graduating.