The Correlation Between Adverse Childhood Experiences And Sleep Quality In College Students:The Mediating Effect Of Early Maladaptive Schemas

Objective:This study aims to understand the current situation of college students’ adverse childhood experiences,early maladaptive schemas and sleep quality,explore the relationship between adverse childhood experiences,early maladaptive schemas and sleep quality of college students,the mediating effect of early maladaptive schemas between adverse childhood experiences and sleep quality of college students was further verified,it provides new ideas for improving sleep quality of college students.Methods:This study adopts stratified random sampling method to select 636 college students from five universities in Jilin City from November 2020 to March 2021 for questionnaire survey.General Data Questionnaire,the Revised Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire,the Young Schema Questionnaire-Short form and the Self-rating Sleep Quality Scale were used to investigate.SPSS 26.0 was used for data analysis.The measurement data were described by（?）±S,and the counting data were described by frequency and composition ratio.T test and variance test were used for the differences in sleep quality of different demographic variables.Pearson correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between adverse childhood experiences,early maladaptive schemas and sleep quality of college students.The predictive effects of adverse childhood experiences and early maladaptive schemas on sleep quality were analyzed by multiple linear regression analysis method.Model 4 of SPSS macro program PROCESS v3.4 was used to verify the mediating role of early maladaptive schemas in the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and college students’ sleep quality.Results:1.Status of adverse childhood experiences,early maladaptive schemas and sleep qual-ity of college students: The incidence of adverse childhood experiences among colleg estudents was 71.3%.24.2% of college students experienced one ACE,14.6% experie-nced two ACEs,10.0% experienced three ACEs,and 22.6% experienced four or more ACEs.The total score of early maladaptive schemas was（187.09±77.48）,includin g Emotional Deprivation（11.97±6.45）,Abandonment/Instability（11.24±6.49）,Mistru st/Abuse（11.94±6.35）,Social isolation/Alienation（11.67±6.58）,Defectiveness/Shame（11.24±6.49）,Failure（12.14±6.65）,Dependence/Incapacity（11.43±6.36）,Vulnerabil-ity to harm or illness/disease（11.49±6.27）,Enmeshment/Undeveloped self（10.96±6.02）,Subjugation（11.73±6.48）,Self-sacrifice（14.67±6.28）,Emotional Inhibition（13.36±6.28）,Unrelenting standard（14.53±6.16）,Entitlement/Grandiosity（13.29±6.17）Insufficient self-control/Self-discipline（13.32±6.15）.The total score of sleep quality was（25.44±6.94）,including Insufficient sleep（3.04±1.07）,Sleep quality（2.72±1.12）,Insufficient awakening（2.77±1.22）,Actual sleep time（2.64±0.96）,Difficulty in falling asleep（2.50±1.27）,Unstable sleep（2.45±1.20）,Early awakening（2.48±1.27）,and more Dream/Nightmare（2.27±1.21）,Medication status（1.60±1.01）,Reaction after insomnia（2.96±1.32）.2.Differences in demographic variables of sleep quality among college students: There were significant differences in sleep quality of college students in gender,grade,family caregivers,caregivers’ education level and monthly consumption level,with statistical significance（P<0.05）.3.The correlation analysis of adverse childhood experiences,early maladaptive schemas,and sleep quality of college students: the score of adverse childhood experience and sleep quality of college students were significantly positively correlated（r=0.413,P<0.01）;There was a significant positive correlation between early maladaptive schemas score and sleep quality score of college students（r=0.391,P< 0.01）.There was a significant positive correlation between the score of adverse childhood experiences and the score of maladaptive schemas（r=0.444,P<0.01）.4.Regression analysis of adverse childhood experiences,early maladaptive schemas,and sleep quality of college students: Regression analysis showed that witnessing domestic violence,physical abuse,physical neglect,and family members with mental illness in adverse childhood experiences could predict sleep quality of college students.The susceptibility to disease or injury and distrust/abuse factors in the early maladaptive schemas can predict the sleep quality of college students.5.The mediating effect test of early maladaptive schemas between adverse childhood experiences and sleep quality of college students: Early maladaptive schemas play a partial mediating role in the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and sleep quality of college students,and the indirect effect percentage is 27.67%.Conclusions:1.College students have a high incidence of adverse childhood experiences and relatively poor sleep quality.The overall level of maladaptive schemas in early college students is not high,and there is no serious cognitive bias.There are significant differences in sleep quality of college students in gender,grade,family caregivers,caregivers’ education level and monthly consumption level.2.The scores of adverse childhood experiences,early maladaptive schemas and sleep quality of college students showed significant positive correlation in pairs,and the relationship between each factor was also very close.Witnessing domestic violence,physical abuse,physical neglect,and family members with mental illness were the influential factors of sleep quality.Vulnerability to harm or illness/disease and Mistrust/Abuse factors in the early maladaptive schemas are the influencing factors of sleep quality of college students.3.The early maladaptive schemas play a partially mediating role in the relationship between the adverse childhood experiences and the sleep quality of college students,that is,the adverse childhood experiences can affect the sleep quality through the early maladaptive schemas.