Prevalence, Severity and Risk Factors for Depressive Symptoms and Insomnia in College Undergraduates
Abstract
Although the college years represent a high‐risk period for depressive symptoms and insomnia, little research has explored their prevalence, comorbidities and risk factors within this developmental period. Two studies were conducted; the first evaluated the prevalence and comorbidity of depressive symptoms and insomnia in 1338 students (ages 18–23 years) from a large Southwestern University. Mild depressive symptoms were endorsed by 19% of students and 14.5% reported moderate to severe symptoms. Forty‐seven percent of students reported mild insomnia and 22.5% endorsed moderate to severe insomnia severity. A second study investigated perceived stress as a potential mediator of the relation between self‐reported childhood adversity and concurrent depressive symptoms and insomnia. Undergraduates (N = 447) from a Southwestern and Southeastern University reported prior childhood adversity, current perceived stress, insomnia and depressive symptoms. Self‐reported childhood adversity predicted higher levels of depressive symptoms and insomnia severity, partially mediated by perceived stress. Results support the high prevalence of depressive symptoms and insomnia among undergraduates. The risk for depressive and insomnia symptoms may be increased among students who experienced greater levels of childhood adversity. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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The majority of studies (n=15) were conducted in North America.
“The geographical location of the studies varied widely with the majority of (n=15) studies conducted in North America [37,44,46-58].”
From A systematic review and meta-analysis of poor sleep, insomnia symptoms and stress in undergraduate students (2022) · cites this paper as [53]
Fourteen effect sizes for insomnia and stress were reported across 12 studies (range 0.25-0.55).
“Fourteen effect sizes for insomnia and stress were reported across 12 studies (range 0.250.55) [29,41,47,50,53,54,57,59,60,65,67,69] (with Benham, 2019 [47] and Hellstrom et al, [29] including two effect sizes each).”
From A systematic review and meta-analysis of poor sleep, insomnia symptoms and stress in undergraduate students (2022) · cites this paper as [53]
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- Authors
- Gress‐Smith, J. L., Roubinov, D. S., Andreotti, C., Compas, B. E., & Luecken, L. J.
- Affiliations
- Arizona State University (US)
- Vanderbilt University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Gress‐Smith, Jenna L.
- Venue
- Stress and Health
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2013-07-30
- Volume
- 31
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 63-70
- ISSN
- 1532-2998 (ISSN-L)
- 1532-3005
- OpenAlex
- W1529470246
- Cited by
- 120
- References
- 13
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 5
- FWCI
- 8.58
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Stress and Health (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (F31MH095314, F31MH0953141)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and related disorders
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Student Stress and Coping
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout
- Keywords
- depressive symptoms, insomnia, university students, childhood adversity, perceived stress, prevalence, comorbidities, risk factors, mediation
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Depression, Female, Humans, Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders, Male, Perception, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Regression Analysis, Risk Factors, Severity of Illness Index, Students, Universities, Prevalence, Young Adult, Self Report
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