Stress and Sleep Quality among Engineering Students

Authors

  • Nurhamizah Hasim School of Human Resource Development and Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
  • Junaidah Yusof School of Human Resource Development and Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
  • Farah Adibah Ibrahim School of Human Resource Development and Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
  • Mohd Sharial Bungsu School of Human Resource Development and Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
  • Nur Asyikin Yakub Yakub School of Human Resource Development and Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
  • Nurul Izzah Shari School of Human Resource Development and Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11113/sh.v15n3.2033

Keywords:

engineering students; sleep quality; stress

Abstract

Stress is a normal occurrence in human lives, and university students can never escape from experiencing stress at least once during their university years, during which they have to face a variety of stressors. Poor sleep quality happens to people of all ages worldwide, particularly university students. Numerous studies have reported that stress significantly correlates with sleep quality among university students from various courses. However, these variables were less explored by past researchers, specifically on engineering students. In order to explore more information on these variables among engineering university students, a cross-sectional, quantitative, correlational study is conducted to identify the relationship between stress and sleep quality among engineering students in Malaysia. A total of 272 undergraduate engineering students from three public universities in Malaysia were involved in the study. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) were used. The result from the correlational analysis shows that there is a significant negative relationship between stress and sleep quality among engineering students. The study’s findings could be used as a reference for future studies and recommend interventions to improve students’ stress and sleep quality levels.

References

Ahad, N. A. (2019). Sleep Quality Among Undergraduates During Pre-Examination Period. Indonesian Journal of Education Methods Development, 6(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.21070/ijemd.v5i1.48

Ahmed, M. S., Khan, S., Hsan, K., Sen, L. C., Yunus, F. M., & Griffiths, M. D. (2020). Factors Affecting Sleep Quality Among the University Students in Bangladesh: A Cross-Sectional Structured Interview Study. Sleep and Vigilance, 4(2), 177–184. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41782-020-00106-4

Al-Khani, A. M., Sarhandi, M. I., Zaghloul, M. S., Ewid, M., & Saquib, N. (2019). A cross-sectional survey on sleep quality, mental health, and academic performance among medical students in Saudi Arabia. BMC Research Notes, 12(1), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-019-4713-2

Almojali, A. I., Almalki, S. A., Alothman, A. S., Masuadi, E. M., & Alaqeel, M. K. (2017). The prevalence and association of stress with sleep quality among medical students. Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health, 7(3), 169–174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jegh.2017.04.005

Alotaibi, A., Alosaimi, F., Alajlan, A., & Bin Abdulrahman, K. (2020). The relationship between sleep quality, stress, and academic performance among medical students. Journal of Family and Community Medicine, 27(1), 23–28. https://doi.org/10.4103/jfcm.JFCM_132_19

Amaral, A. P., Soares, M. J., Pinto, A. M., Pereira, A. T., Madeira, N., Bos, S. C., Marques, M., Roque, C., & Macedo, A. (2018). Sleep difficulties in college students: The role of stress, affect and cognitive processes. Psychiatry Research, 260(November 2017), 331–337. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2017.11.072

Amir Hamzah, N. S., Nik Farid, N. D., Yahya, A., Chin, C., Su, T. T., Rampal, S. R. L., & Dahlui, M. (2019). The Prevalence and Associated Factors of Depression, Anxiety and Stress of First Year Undergraduate Students in a Public Higher Learning Institution in Malaysia. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 28(12), 3545–3557. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-019-01537-y

Balaji, N. K., Murthy, P. S., Kumar, D. N., & Chaudgury, S. (2019). Perceived stress, anxiety, and coping states in medical and engineering students during examinations. Industrial Psychiatry Journal, 28(1), 86–97. https://doi.org/10.4103/ipj.ipj_70_18

Bisai, S., & Chaudhary, R. (2017). Stress Among the Students of an Engineering Institution in India: An Empirical Analysis. Jindal Journal of Business Research, 6(2), 186–198. https://doi.org/10.1177/2278682117727224

Bo, Y., Yeoh, E. kiong, Guo, C., Zhang, Z., Tam, T., Chan, T. C., Chang, L. yun, & Lao, X. Q. (2019). Sleep and the risk of chronic kidney disease: A cohort study. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 15(3), 393–400. https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.7660

Buysse, D. J., Reynolds III, C. F., Monk, T. H., Berman, S. R., & Kupfer, D. J. (1988). The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index: A new instrument for psychiatric practice and research. Psychiatry Research, 28, 193–213.

Buysse, D. J., Reynolds III, C. F., Monk, T. H., Berman, S. R., & Kupfer, D. J. (1989). The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index: A new instrument for psychiatric practice and research. Psychiatry Research, 28, 193–213.

Cho, J.-G., Teoh, A., Roberts, M., & Wheatley, J. (2019). The prevalence of poor sleep quality and its associated factors in patients with interstitial lung disease: a cross-sectional analysis. ERJ Open Research, 5(3), 00062–02019. https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.00062-2019

Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., & Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24(4), 385–396.

Cohen, S., & Williamson, G. (1988). Perceived stress in a probability sample of the United States. In S. Spacapan & S. Oskamp (Eds.), The Social Psychology Of Health: Claremont Symposium On Applied Social Psychology (Eds.). Sage.

DeAngelis, R. T., Escobar, I., Ruiz, A. L., & Acevedo, G. A. (2019). Sleep quality among college students: exploring the role of a divine locus of sleep control. Sleep Health, 5(6), 592–597. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleh.2019.08.004

Doolin, J., Vilches, J. E., Cooper, C., Gipson, C., & Sorensen, W. (2018). Perceived stress and worldview influence sleep quality in Bolivian and United States university students. Sleep Health, 4(6), 565–571. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleh.2018.08.006

El-Kader, S. M. A., & Al-Jiffri, O. H. (2019). Aerobic exercise modulates cytokine profile and sleep quality in elderly. African Health Sciences, 19(2), 2198–2207. https://doi.org/10.4314/ahs.v19i2.45

Everitt, B. S. (2006). Medical statistics from A to Z: A guide for clinicians and medical students (3rd Eds). Cambridge University Press.

Fisher, C. B. (2013). Decoding the ethics code (3rd Editio). SAGE Publications.

Folkman, S., & Lazarus, R. S. (1988). Coping as a mediator of emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(3), 466–475. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.54.3.466

Gedam, S., Saklecha, P., & Babar, V. (2020). Screening of stress, anxiety, depression, coping, and associated factors among Engineering students. Annals of Indian Psychiatry, 4(2), 148. https://doi.org/10.4103/aip.aip_6_20

González Salinas, S., Cruz Sánchez, R. A., Ferrer Juárez, L. E., Reyes Garduño, M. E., Gil Trejo, M. J., & Sánchez Moguel, S. M. (2020). Anxiety and Sleep Quality are Affected in Students from Social Sciences. Acta de Investigación Psicológica, 10(3), 33–43. https://doi.org/10.22201/fpsi.20074719e.2020.3.355

Grandner, M. A. (2017). Sleep, Health, and Society. Sleep Medicine Clinics, 12(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsmc.2016.10.012

Gregory, R. J. (2014). Psychological testing: History, principles, and applications (7th Editio). Pearson.

Hargens, T. A., Scott, M. C., Olijar, V., Bigman, M., & Edwards, E. S. (2020). Markers of poor sleep quality increase sedentary behavior in college students as derived from accelerometry. Sleep and Breathing. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-020-02190-2

Harvey, A. G. (2002). A cognitive model of insomnia. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 40(8), 869–893. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0005-7967(01)00061-4

Harvey, Allison G., Stinson, K., Whitaker, K. L., Moskovitz, D., & Virk, H. (2008). The subjective meaning of sleep quality: A comparison of individuals with and without insomnia. Sleep, 31(3), 383–393. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/31.3.383

Hulin, C., Netemeyer, R. G., & Cudeck, R. (2001). Can a reliability coefficient be too high? Journal of Consumer Psychology, 10(1), 55–58. https://doi.org/10.2307/1480474

In, J. (2017). Introduction of a pilot study. Korean Journal of Anesthesiology, 70(6), 601–605. https://doi.org/10.4097/kjae.2017.70.6.601

Irwin, M. R., & Opp, M. R. (2017). Sleep Health: Reciprocal Regulation of Sleep and Innate Immunity. Neuropsychopharmacology, 42(1), 129–155. https://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2016.148

Julious, S. A. (2005). Sample size of 12 per group rule of thumb for a pilot study. Pharmaceutical Statistics, 4(4), 287–291. https://doi.org/10.1002/pst.185

Jung, Y. S., Chae, C. H., Kim, Y. O., Son, J. S., Kim, C. W., Park, H. O., Lee, J. H., Shin, Y. H., & Kwak, H. S. (2017). The relationship between serum vitamin D levels and sleep quality in fixed day indoor field workers in the electronics manufacturing industry in Korea. Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 29(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40557-017-0187-7

Kerlinger, F. N. (1986). Foundations of Behavioral Research (3rd Eds). Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Krejcie, R. V., & Morgan, D. W. (1970). Determining sample size for research activities. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 30, 607–610. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/001316447003000308

Kumar, R. (2019). Research Methodology: a step-by-step guide for beginners (5th Eds). SAGE Publications.

Lazarus, R. S. (1991). Emotion and Adaptation. Oxford University Press.

Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. Springer.

Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1986). Cognitive theories of stress and the issue of circularity. In M. H. Appley & R. Trumbull (Eds.), Dynamics of Stress. Physiological, Psychological, and Social Perspectives (Eds, pp. 63–80). Plenum.

Lee, C. M., & Hunsley, J. (2018). Introduction to clinical psychology: an evidence-based approach (4th Editio). Wiley.

Lee, M. F., & Syaid, S. (2017). Factors contributing towards Malaysian Technical University (MTU) students’ mental health. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 25(May), 93–100.

Li, Y., Bai, W., Zhu, B., Duan, R., Yu, X., Xu, W., Wang, M., Hua, W., Yu, W., Li, W., & Kou, C. (2020). Prevalence and correlates of poor sleep quality among college students: A cross-sectional survey. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 18(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12955-020-01465-2

Lindberg, S. (2019). Eustress: The good stress. Healthline.

Lv, W., Wang, X., Liu, J., & Yu, P. (2019). Eight-section brocade exercises improve the sleep quality and memory consolidation and cardiopulmonary function of older adults with atrial fibrillation-associated stroke. Frontiers in Psychology, 10(OCT), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02348

Majid, U. (2018). Research Fundamentals: Study Design, Population, and Sample Size. Undergraduate Research in Natural and Clinical Science and Technology (URNCST) Journal, 2(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.26685/urncst.16

Manap, R., Hamid, S. A., & Ghani, M. A. (2019). Depression, Anxiety and Stress Among Undergraduate Students. E-Bangi (Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities), 16(2), 1–7.

Mayildurai, R., Ashokkumar, R., Karthik, K., & Shanmugaprakash, M. (2019). Research on stress among the engineering college students in Coimbatore, India. International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology, 8(6 Special Issue), 73–75. https://doi.org/10.35940/ijeat.F1014.0886S19

Mohamad, N. E., Sidik, S. M., Akhtari-Zavare, M., & Gani, N. A. (2021). The prevalence risk of anxiety and its associated factors among university students in Malaysia: a national cross-sectional study. BMC Public Health, 21(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-10440-5

Molnar, D. S., Janssen, W. F., & Sirois, F. M. (2020). Sleeping perfectly? Trait perfectionism, perceived stress, and sleep quality. Personality and Individual Differences, 167(April), 110244. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110244

Musa, N. A., Moy, F. M., & Wong, L. P. (2018). Prevalence and factors associated with poor sleep quality among secondary school teachers in a developing country. Industrial Health, 56(5), 407–418. https://doi.org/10.2486/indhealth.2018-0052

Musiun, A., Lukman, K. A., Jeffree, M. S., Robinson, F., Hassan, M. R., Ghazi, H. F., Al-abed, A. A. A. A., Tha, N. O., Swe, & Shamsudin, S. B. (2019). Prevalence of stress and its associated factors among medical students in Sabah, Malaysia Borneo. Malaysian Journal of Public Health Medicine, 19(2), 116–125.

Najem, J., Saber, M., Aoun, C., El Osta, N., Papazian, T., & Rabbaa Khabbaz, L. (2020). Prevalence of food addiction and association with stress, sleep quality and chronotype: A cross-sectional survey among university students. Clinical Nutrition, 39(2), 533–539. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clnu.2019.02.038

Nasir, W. A. M., & Mohamad, M. Y. (2020). Association of sleep deprivation and neck pain among International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) clinical year students. International Journal of Allied Health Sciences, 4(4), 1619–1625. https://journals.iium.edu.my/ijahs/index.php/IJAHS/article/view/285

Navarro-Martínez, R., Chover-Sierra, E., Colomer-Pérez, N., Vlachou, E., Andriuseviciene, V., & Cauli, O. (2020). Sleep quality and its association with substance abuse among university students. Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery, 188(October 2019), 105591. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clineuro.2019.105591

Negi, A. S., Khanna, A., & Aggarwal, R. (2019). Psychological health, stressors and coping mechanism of engineering students. International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 24(4), 511–520. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2019.1570856

Ohayon, M., Wickwire, E. M., Hirshkowitz, M., Albert, S. M., Avidan, A., Daly, F. J., Dauvilliers, Y., Ferri, R., Fung, C., Gozal, D., Hazen, N., Krystal, A., Lichstein, K., Mallampalli, M., Plazzi, G., Rawding, R., Scheer, F. A., Somers, V., & Vitiello, M. V. (2017). National Sleep Foundation’s sleep quality recommendations: first report. Sleep Health, 3(1), 6–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleh.2016.11.006

Othman, M. A., & Rashid, M. A. (2018). Stress and Mental Health of Undergradute Students At a Private Higher Learning Institution in Malaysia. PEOPLE: International Journal of Social Sciences, 4(2), 453–465. https://doi.org/10.20319/pijss.2018.42.453465

Quacquarelli Symonds. (2021). Engineering & technology. https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/university-subject-rankings/2021/engineering-technology. Retrieve on 14 September 2022

Reddy, K. J., Menon, K. R., & Thattil, A. (2018). Academic stress and its sources among university students. Biomedical and Pharmacology Journal, 11(1), 531–537. https://doi.org/10.13005/bpj/1404

Reta, Y., Samuel, T., & Mekonnen, M. (2020). Mental distress and associated factors among undergraduate engineering students of Hawassa University, Ethiopia. Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare, 13, 99–107. https://doi.org/10.2147/JMDH.S238113

Roberti, J. W., Harrington, L. N., & Storch, E. A. (2006). Further psychometric support for the 10-item version of the perceived stress scale. Journal of Counseling Association, 9(2), 135–147. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-1882.2006.tb00100.x

Said, A. H., Yusof, M. Z., Mohd, F. N., Azmi, M. A. N. H., Mohd Hanapiah, H., & Abdullah, A. W. (2020). Poor sleep quality among medical students in international Islamic university Malaysia (IIUM) and its association with mental health and other factors. International Medical Journal Malaysia, 19(2), 49–57. https://doi.org/10.31436/imjm.v19i2.1564

Scott, E. (2020). What is stress? Verywellmind. https://www.verywellmind.com Retrieve on 21 October 2022

Simione, L., Raffone, A., & Mirolli, M. (2020). Stress as the Missing Link Between Mindfulness, Sleep Quality, and Well-being: a Cross-sectional Study. Mindfulness, 11(2), 439–451. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-019-01255-y

Spielman, A. J. (1986). Assessment of insomnia. Clinical Psychology Review, 6(1), 11–25. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/0272-7358(86)90015-2

Spielman, A. J., Caruso, L. S., & Glovinsky, P. B. (1987). A behavioral perpective on insomnia treatment. Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 10(4), 541–553. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0193-953x(18)30532-x

Sridar, S. P. (2018). Comparative study on elements of stress which affect first and final year undergraduate students. Scope International Journal of Science, Humanities, Management and Technology, 4(3), 176–181.

Stanković, M., Nešić, M., Čičević, S., & Shi, Z. (2021). Association of smartphone use with depression, anxiety, stress, sleep quality, and internet addiction. Empirical evidence from a smartphone application. Personality and Individual Differences, 168(June 2020), 110342. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110342

Taylor, R. (1990). Interpretation of the correlation coefficient: A basic review. Journal of Diagnostic Medical Sonography, 1, 35–39. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/875647939000600106

The Odum Institute. (2015). Learn about Pearson’s correlation coefficient in SPSS with data from the global health observatory data (2012) (SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part 1 (ed.)). SAGE Publications, Ltd. https://doi.org/https://www.doi.org/10.4135/9781473948167

Tien Ngu, S., Masalamany, K., Abd Manan, N., & Adam, S. K. (2017). Sleep Quality among Pre-Clinical Medical Students in Universiti Putra Malaysia and Universiti Malaya, Malaysia. Education in Medicine Journal, 9(3), 23–31. https://doi.org/10.21315/eimj2017.9.3.3

Wondie, T., Molla, A., Mulat, H., Damene, W., & Bekele, M. (2021). Magnitude and correlates of sleep quality among undergraduate medical students in Ethiopia : cross – sectional study. Sleep Science and Practice, 5(7). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1186/s41606-021-00058-2

Zhai, X., Ye, M., Wang, C., Gu, Q., Huang, T., Wang, K., Chen, Z., & Fan, X. (2020). Associations among physical activity and smartphone use with perceived stress and sleep quality of Chinese college students. Mental Health and Physical Activity, 18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mhpa.2020.100323

Zhang, L., Li, D., & Yin, H. (2020). How is psychological stress linked to sleep quality? The mediating role of functional connectivity between the sensory/somatomotor network and the cingulo-opercular control network. Brain and Cognition, 146. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2020.105641

Zhang, Y., Peters, A., & Bradstreet, J. (2018). Relationships among sleep quality, coping styles, and depressive symptoms among college nursing students: A multiple mediator model. Journal of Professional Nursing, 34(4), 320–325. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2017.12.004

Zou, P., Wang, X., Sun, L., Liu, K., Hou, G., Yang, W., Liu, C., Yang, H., Zhou, N., Zhang, G., Ling, X., Liu, J., Cao, J., Ao, L., & Chen, Q. (2020). Poorer sleep quality correlated with mental health problems in college students: A longitudinal observational study among 686 males. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 136(June), 110177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2020.110177

Downloads

Published

2023-08-30

How to Cite

Hasim, N., Yusof, J., Ibrahim, F. A., Bungsu, M. S., Yakub, N. A. Y., & Shari, N. I. (2023). Stress and Sleep Quality among Engineering Students. Sains Humanika, 15(3), 29–40. https://doi.org/10.11113/sh.v15n3.2033

Issue

Section

Articles