Abstract

This study aimed to examine the mediating effects of fatigue, stress, and affect on the relationship between sleep quality and depressive mood in university students experiencing financial difficulties. Participants (35) were university students in a metropolitan area of South Korea, recruited from September 2019 to December 2019 and from February 2020 to June 2020. They completed a pre-ecological momentary assessment online survey assessing sleep quality, fatigue, stress, and quality of life. Subsequently, participants participated in a 14-day ecological momentary assessment of daily depressive mood, sleep quality, fatigue, stress, and positive and negative affect. A multilevel mediation analysis indicated that fatigue completely mediated the relationship between sleep quality and depressive mood at the within- and between-subject levels, whereas stress and positive affect completely mediated the relationship only at the within-subject level. Negative affect did not mediate the relationship between sleep quality and depressive mood either at the within- or between-subject level. These findings suggest that interventions targeting mediators such as fatigue, stress and affect may alleviate the impact of poor sleep quality on depressive mood among university students experiencing financial difficulties.