Dados do Trabalho

Título

Relationship between perception of academic stress, sleep patterns and mental health indicators in adolescents in the morning shift in high school

Introdução

Adolescence is a period of physical and behavioral modifications, characterized by greater autonomy to decide bedtimes associated with an ontogenetic need to sleep later and difficulties in waking up in the morning. This conflicts with the morning start time of school causing several disadvantages for adolescents. In this context, academic stress, frequently observed in the school environment, is related to poor sleep quality and worse mental health outcomes.

Objetivo

To analyze the relationship between the perception of academic stress, sleep variables and mental health outcomes in adolescents in high school in the morning shift.

Métodos

78 adolescents (71.8% girls) with a mean age of 16.6 ± 0.8 years, from high school in the morning shift of two private schools in Juazeiro do Norte/CE participated in the study. Students completed the following questionnaires online: Munich Chronotype Scale, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Pediatric Daytime Sleepiness Scale, Perceived Academic Stress Scale, and Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale for Adolescents. Structural Equation Modeling was performed to analyze the data.

Resultados

There was a relationship between Perceived Academic Stress (PEA) and Mental Health (MH) indicators (B=0.638; p<0.001), in which the higher the PEA, the higher the frequency of symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression. There was a relationship between daytime sleepiness and MS (B=0.361; p<0.001), in which the greater the daytime sleepiness, the higher the frequency of symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression. The relationship between PEA and MS was slightly increased after calculating the total coefficient, accounting for direct and indirect relationships (B=0.731; p<0.001).

Conclusões

The perception of academic stress directly and negatively influences aspects related to mental functioning in high school adolescents in the morning shift, demonstrating the influence of the school environment. It also indirectly influences mental functioning when sleep aspects are added as intermediary factors in a single analysis. Therefore, sleep-related impairments contribute to poorer mental functioning.

Palavras -chave

academic demand; school schedules; stress; anxiety; depression.