Exploring the Impact of Loneliness and Sleeping Disturbance on Anxiety and Depression, Among Adults during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Abstract
The current research study aimed to investigate how loneliness and sleep disturbance affect anxiety and depression levels in adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, it explored, whether there are mediation relations between loneliness with sleep disturbance, loneliness with anxiety, and between sleep disturbance, anxiety, and depression. The participants included university students (total = 160). Data were collected using three self-report measures: The measures that were used are the Loneliness Scale (UCLA) adapted from Russell et al. (1978), the Sleep Disturbance Scale (PROMIS) from the National Institutes of Health (2004), Anxiety, and Depression Scale (WEMWBS) from the universities of Warwick and Edinburgh (2006). The findings also showed that loneliness presented a certain impact on the adults as it had a stronger correlation with anxiety as well as depression during the pandemic. Most impressively, loneliness displayed an inverse relationship to sleep disturbance while a direct relationship to anxiety and depression with correlation coefficients of -0.344** and 0.502** respectively with ‘p’ < 0.01. Sleep disturbance was also inversely related to anxiety and depression (r = -0.299, p < 0.01). Multiple regression analysis showed that loneliness had a significant negative relationship with perceived sleep disturbance and anxiety and depression (ΔR² = 0.248, F (53.305) = 0.000, p < 0.05). Likewise, sleep disturbance had a significant inverse relationship with anxiety and depression controlling for most of the variables (ΔR² = 0.084, F (15.55) = 0.000, p < 0.05). Pre-tiling results revealed that the direct effect of loneliness on anxiety was estimated at 0.45, p < 0.01, and the indirect impact through stress was estimated at β = 0.22, p < 0.01. Stress also partially mediated the effect of sleep disturbance on depression (direct effect: The results follow the sequence of model 1: β = 0.42, p < 0.05; model 2: indirect effect: β = 0.18, p < 0.05. During the COVID-19 pandemic, sleep disturbance and loneliness are well-established in mental health.
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