Psychometric Evaluation of the PSQI in U.S. College Students
Open accessAbstract
Study objectives Examine the psychometric properties of the PSQI in two U.S. college samples. Methods Study I assessed convergent and divergent validity in 866 undergraduates who completed a sleep diary, PSQI, and other sleep and psychosocial measures. Study II assessed PSQI insomnia diagnostic accuracy in a separate sample of 147 healthy undergraduates with and without insomnia. Results The PSQI global score had only moderate convergent validity with sleep diary sleep efficiency (prospective global measure of sleep continuity; r = 0.53), the Insomnia Severity Index (r = 0.63), and fatigue (r = 0.44). The PSQI global score demonstrated good divergent validity with measures of excessive daytime sleepiness (r = 0.18), circadian preference (r = -0.08), alcohol (r = 0.08) and marijuana (r = 0.05) abuse scales, and poor divergent validity with depression (r = 0.48), anxiety (r = 0.40), and perceived stress (r = 0.33). Examination of other analogous PSQI and sleep diary components showed low to moderate convergent validity: sleep latency (r = 0.70), wake after sleep onset (r = 0.37), sleep duration (r = 0.51), and sleep efficiency (r = -0.32). Diagnostic accuracy of the PSQI to detect insomnia was very high (area under the curve = 0.999). Sensitivity and specificity were maximized at a cutoff of 6. Conclusions The PSQI demonstrated moderate convergent validity compared to measures of insomnia and fatigue and good divergent validity with measures of daytime sleepiness, circadian phase preference, and alcohol and marijuana use. The PSQI demonstrated considerable overlap with depression, anxiety, and perceived stress. Therefore, caution should be used with interpretation.
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Nineteen studies included measures of anxiety and/or depression.
“Nineteen studies (n=19) included measures of anxiety and/or depression [35,39,41-44,50,5254,56-60,63,64,66,69] .”
From A systematic review and meta-analysis of poor sleep, insomnia symptoms and stress in undergraduate students (2022) · cites this paper as [50]
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 [50]
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 [50]
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- Authors
- Dietch, J. R., Taylor, D. J., Sethi, K., Kelly, K., Bramoweth, A. D., & Roane, B. M.
- Affiliations
- University of North Texas (US)
- VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System (US)
- University of North Texas Health Science Center (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine
- Published
- 2016-08-15
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 1121-1129
- ISSN
- 1550-9389 (ISSN-L)
- 1550-9397
- PMC
- PMC4957190
- OpenAlex
- W2472496494
- Cited by
- 209
- References
- 10
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 23 · 2024: 38 · 2023: 27 · 2022: 28 · 2021: 25 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 19 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 4
- FWCI
- 15.66
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- University of North Texas
- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and related disorders
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Obstructive Sleep Apnea Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and Work-Related Fatigue
- Keywords
- Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, psychometric properties, university students, insomnia diagnosis, convergent validity, discriminant validity, sleep diary, Insomnia Severity Index, fatigue, excessive daytime sleepiness, circadian preference, alcohol and marijuana use, depression, anxiety, perceived stress
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Female, Humans, Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders, Male, Psychometrics, Surveys and Questionnaires, Sensitivity and Specificity, Severity of Illness Index, Sleep, Students, United States, Universities, Reproducibility of Results, Young Adult
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