- Email: [email protected]
Sleep deprivation and the development of leadership and need for cognition during the college years
Journal of Adolescence 73 (2019) 95–99
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Adolescence journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/adolescence
Brief report
Sleep deprivation and the development of leadership and need for cognition during the college years
T
Wei-Lin Chena, Jen-Hao Chenb,∗ a b
Montclair State University, USA Rutgers University, USA
ARTICLE INFO
ABSTRACT
Keywords: Cognitive motivation Health and human development Leadership Longitudinal analysis Sleep deprivation
Introduction: The epidemic of sleep deprivation among college students is alarming. Prior studies of college students' sleep deprivation have focused on academic outcomes and mental health problems. This study considers the impact of college students’ sleep deprivation on two key, developmental outcomes: leadership and need for cognition. Methods: This study is a secondary analysis of longitudinal data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education (N = 3,690), using random-effects and fixed-effects models to estimate the association between chronic sleep deprivation from freshman year to senior year and developmental outcomes. Results: Results from the random-effects model show that chronic sleep deprivation is negatively associated with lower scores in leadership skills ( = .09 P < . 001) and need for cognition ( = .08 P < . 001), after accounting for potential confounders. Results from the fixed-effects model that accounts for time-invariant unobserved variables show similar patterns for leadership skills ( = .09 P < . 01) and need for cognition ( = .06 P < . 01). Conclusions: This study demonstrates that chronic sleep deprivation has consequences for critical skills, suggesting that steps to promote college students’ sleep health may also enhance their positive development in leadership skills and need for cognition.
1. Introduction The college years are when students gain specialized knowledge and build human capital that enhances their employability, and also when students develop the key soft skills to learn and thrive after graduation (Astin & Astin, 2000; Komives & Wagner, 2016; Wu, Parker, & De Jong, 2014). Leadership and the need for cognition are two soft skills that have received considerable attention in the education literature (Hurtado, Alvarez, Guillermo-Wann, Cuellar, & Arellano, 2012; Komives & Wagner, 2016; Mayhew et al., 2016) and are key goals of liberal arts education (Pascarella, Wolniak, Seifert, Cruce, & Blaich, 2005; Seifert et al., 2008). Individuals with a high need for cognition are able to sort out information and generate task-related cognitive responses efficiently (Cacioppo, Petty, & Morris, 1983; Mayhew, Wolniak, & Pascarella, 2008) and leadership skills help individuals create a purposeful, collaborative, and values-based environment (Dugan, 2006; Dugan & Komives, 2010). Youth development research has demonstrated that organized activities, youth programs, and adult mentorship are important for developing leadership and need for cognition (Hurtado et al., 2012; Mayhew et al., 2016). And, the epidemic of sleep deprivation has
∗ Corresponding author. Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice, Center for Health Sciences, Rutgers University, 405-7 Cooper Street Camden, NJ 08102, USA. E-mail address: [email protected] (J.-H. Chen).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2019.04.003 Received 18 July 2018; Received in revised form 8 April 2019; Accepted 16 April 2019 Available online 30 April 2019 0140-1971/ © 2019 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Journal of Adolescence 73 (2019) 95–99
W.-L. Chen and J.-H. Chen
received considerable attention in the adolescent literature (Crowley, Wolfson, Tarokh, & Carskadon, 2018). There is evidence that sleep deprivation is high among college students (Buboltz Jr, Brown, & Soper, 2001; Lund, Reider, Whiting, & Prichard, 2010) and some studies have documented its negative consequences. However, so far, no studies have examined how sleep deprivation affects the development of leadership and need for cognition. Weidman's undergraduate socialization model (1989) is a useful conceptual framework that links sleep deprivation to leadership and need for cognition among college students. The model treats college as a key socialization field for youths' future success and integration in society (Antonio, 2001; Padgett et al., 2010), i.e., a time and place where extra-curricular activities, social interactions, and engagement in organized activities promote development. By participating in events and activities, students have positive interactions with peers and faculty members that internalize the norms, values, and expectations of the group. Undoubtedly, a key mission of higher education is to develop students' preference for critical thinking, which is the core of the construct of need for cognition (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982; Mayhew et al., 2016). In this way, socialization experience during college years promotes need for cognition. Social engagement and participation in activities are also critical for developing leadership because those skills have to be practiced. By working with peers to organize events, coordinate, and negotiate, students hone their capacities for collaboration, common purpose, citizenship, and more (Dugan, 2017). Thus, while students may not be socialized to lead, college provides an opportunity to learn from doing and to learn from role models (Campbell, Smith, Dugan, & Komives, 2012; Dugan & Komives, 2010; Wagner, 2016). Sleep deprivation can significantly affect the development of leadership and need for cognition by disrupting students' college life and socialization experience. First, sleep deprivation can increase sleepiness and fatigue during the daytime and lower energy levels (Crowley et al., 2018), which may disrupt students' participation in activities and reduce the time available to interact with others. Second, sleep deprivation increases negative moods, which may create more negative relationships with peers and teachers (Gordon & Chen, 2014; Kahn-Greene, Lipizzi, Conrad, Kamimori, & Killgore, 2006; Roberts, Roberts, & Duong, 2008). If there is less time for social participation and lower relationship quality, there may be fewer opportunities to develop leadership and internalize the value of the need for cognition. Hence, the study's key hypothesis: Chronic sleep deprivation negatively impacts development of leadership and need for cognition among college students. 2. Methods 2.1. Data This study uses data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education (WNS), a longitudinal study that aims to understand the role of liberal arts education in youth development and learning. The WNS started with a brief pilot survey of a random sample of 17,000 freshmen selected from 49 two-year and four-year institutions, including approximately 4,500 freshmen first contacted in the fall of 2006, approximately 3,400 freshmen first contacted in the fall of 2007, and 9,600 freshmen first contacted in the fall of 2008. Students who stayed in the study were interviewed in the spring semester of their freshman and senior year. For more information about the WNS, see Pascarella (2007) and Loes, Pascarella, and Umbach (2012). This study uses data only from the second (i.e., spring of freshman year) and third waves (i.e., spring of senior year) because the sleep deprivation and college experience instruments were not administered in the pilot wave. The final analytical sample also excludes community college students because most of them dropped out in the second wave, and excludes students who were in the second and third waves of survey but did not complete the assessments of leadership and need for cognition. The final sample size is 3,690. 2.2. Measure of sleep deprivation In the second and third waves, the WNS included a question about college students' experience of sleep deprivation: “How often do you feel that you are ‘sleep deprived’ (i.e., don't get enough sleep to function effectively)?” This question reflects the key aspect of chronic sleep deprivation (Hershner & Chervin, 2014) and is similar to questions used in other population-based surveys of sleep deprivation and sleep reduction (Baldwin Jr & Daugherty, 2004; Meijer, 2008). The answer categories included never, seldom, occasionally, frequently, and almost always. To focus on chronic sleep deprivation, responses were recoded into a dichotomous variable with “frequently” and “almost always” coded as one and others coded as zero. 2.3. Measures of leadership and need for cognition In the second and third waves, the WNS administrated the leadership scale developed by Dugan (2006). The original 68-item scale had high reliabilities (i.e., 0.935 for the second wave and 0.843 for the third wave) and the need for cognition scale the WNS used, modified from the original Cacioppo and colleagues’ scale (1984), also had high reliabilities (i.e., 0.897 for the second wave and 0.891 for the third wave). For more information about measuring and scaling the need for cognition in the WNS, see Pascarella (2007). These scales have been widely used in prior studies of leadership and need for cognition (Padgett et al., 2010; Pascarella, Wang, Trolian, & Blaich, 2013). In this study, the author created raw scores for each scale, per Dugan (2006) and Cacioppo, Petty, and
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Journal of Adolescence 73 (2019) 95–99
W.-L. Chen and J.-H. Chen
Kao (1984), and standardized them by transforming raw scores to z-scores, for ease of interpretation. 2.4. Empirical strategy To link sleep deprivation and students’ developmental outcomes longitudinally, the analysis began with the random-effects model that controlled for cohort, age, gender, race/ethnicity, parental education, family income, binge drinking, smoking, self-rated health, having a dependent or not, grant/scholarship recipient, student loan recipient, off-campus employment, on-campus employment, credits earned, and time spent studying. The fixed-effects model was also applied to ease concerns about unobserved characteristics that may confound the relationships. The fixed-effects model generates a more conservative estimate, eliminating the impact of timeinvariant, unobserved characteristics by calculating the association based on within-individual variations. When a randomized experiment is not feasible, the model is preferred over traditional statistical methods, e.g., ANOVA (Duncan, Magnuson, & Ludwig, 2004). To deal with missing values in variables, the study used multiple imputation (Allison, 2001). 3. Results The descriptive statistics show that chronic sleep deprivation was prevalent: Over one-fourth of students reported chronic sleep deprivation during both freshman and senior years; about 15% of students reported chronic sleep deprivation in freshman year only, and another 15% of students reported chronic sleep deprivation in senior year only. From freshman year to senior year, average leadership skills and need for cognition increased slightly. Table 1 presents the standardized coefficients from the random-effects model and fixed-effects regressions. Results from the random-effects model show that chronic sleep deprivation was associated with decreases in leadership skills and need for cognition. The fixed-effects model shows the same patterns: Chronic sleep deprivation remained negatively associated with leadership skills and need for cognition, and the effect size remained substantial comparing to the effects of covariates. Taken together, the results support the hypothesis that chronic sleep deprivation is a predictor of college students’ developmental outcomes. As a check on the main analysis, the authors also conducted another sensitivity analysis with sleep deprivation as a five-point variable. The results were similar. Table 1 Longitudinal results of association between sleep deprivation and leadership and need for cognition (N = 3,690). Leadership
Chronic Sleep Deprivation Demographic Background Age Female Race (Ref: White) African American Asian Hispanic Unknown International Student Having a Dependent Highest Parental Education (Years) Family Income (Thousands) Cohort (Ref: 2006) 2007 2008 Health and Lifestyle Behaviors Self-Rated Health (from 1 to 5) Smoking Binge Drinking College Experience Grant/Scholarship Recipient Having Student Loan Off-Campus Work Per Week (Hours) On-Campus Work Per Week (Hours) Time Spent on Studying Per Week (Hours) Credits Earned Constant
Need for Cognition
Random Effects
Fixed Effects
Random Effects
Fixed Effects
-.09*** (.02)
-.09** (.03)
-.08*** (.02)
-.06** (.02)
0.00 (0.01) 0.11*** (0.03)
0.01 (0.01) −0.13*** (0.03)
0.19*** (0.06) −0.01 (0.07) 0.19*** (0.05) −0.04 (0.06) 0.10 (0.08) 0.11 (0.13) 0.01 (0.01) 0.00 (0.00)
−0.16** (0.06) −0.24** (0.10) 0.07 (0.07) 0.03 (0.06) −0.02 (0.12) −0.01 (0.12) 0.04*** (0.01) 0.00 (0.00)
0.08 (0.04) 0.10** (0.04)
−0.07 (0.07) 0.07 (0.10)
0.23*** (0.02) −0.13* (0.06) −0.06*** (0.02)
0.16*** (0.03) −0.08 (0.09) −0.04 (0.03)
0.09*** (0.02) 0.05 (0.05) −0.15*** (0.02)
0.10*** (0.02) −0.05 (0.06) −0.06* (0.03)
0.02 (0.04) 0.03 (0.03) 0.01 (0.01) 0.02*** (0.01) 0.05*** (0.01) 0.01** (0.00) −1.54*** (0.22)
−0.02 (0.06) −0.03 (0.05) 0.00 (0.01) −0.01 (0.01) 0.03*** (0.01) 0.01* (0.00) −0.77*** (0.16)
0.08* (0.04) −0.06 (0.03) −0.02*** (0.01) 0.02*** (0.01) 0.07*** (0.01) 0.00 (0.00) −1.46*** (0.30)
0.01 (0.05) −0.12*** (0.03) −0.01* (0.01) −0.01 (0.01) 0.03*** (0.01) 0.00 (0.00) −0.39*** (0.11)
+p < .1. *p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001. All regressions controlled the full set of potential confounders, including age, gender, race/ethnicity, health and life behaviors, and college experience.
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Journal of Adolescence 73 (2019) 95–99
W.-L. Chen and J.-H. Chen
4. Discussion Other research has shown that sleep deprivation has become a threat for college students’ health and learning. This study adds to our understanding of sleep deprivation in college students by showing that its consequences extend to two key, soft skills: leadership and need for cognition. In the analysis, the association between sleep deprivation and the outcomes of interest remains statistically significant after controlling for a wide range of potential confounders and after using the fixed-effects model to eliminate the effect of time-invariant unobserved confounders. The results thus suggest that sleep deprivation may undermine the development of leadership and need for cognition among college students. The study, however, has some limitations. First, the sample is not a nationally representative sample of college students. Second, the WNS includes no objective measure of sleep deprivation, has no data from the sophomore and junior years, and has no information about commuting. However, the commuting time may only have a minor impact on students’ sleep because (at spring semester of the first year) about 89% of the students who participated in the WNS survey lived in dorms. As such, for majority of them, commuting may not be an issue in the study. Furthermore, drop-out patterns may affect the interpretation of the results. By spring semester of the senior year, about 49% of the freshman year sample had dropped out of the survey, due to transfer, drop-out from school, or refusing the survey. A sensitivity analysis shows that students with certain characteristics, i.e., low parental education, African-American, no financial aid, low need for cognition in spring of freshman year, were more likely to drop-out of the survey. Because individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds also typically have a higher prevalence of sleep deprivation (Grandner et al., 2010; Patel, Grandner, Xie, Branas, & Gooneratne, 2010), it is possible that the analysis underestimated the association between sleep deprivation and developmental outcomes. Moreover, the single-item measure of sleep deprivation precludes further analysis of how patterns of sleep deprivation affects these developmental outcomes. Because the WNS did not ask respondents about other aspects of sleep, a fuller longitudinal analysis of college students’ sleep patterns and developmental outcomes is not possible. Nevertheless, the study's robust findings have several implications. The study of adolescent development has focused on family context and social interactions as opportunities for developing critical skills (Badura et al., 2017; Steinberg & Morris, 2001). The study also reinforces the emerging literature on the consequence of sleep deprivation on adolescent development (Crowley et al., 2018; Curcio, Ferrara, & De Gennaro, 2006) and suggests the importance of including sleep deprivation prevention in health education programs for college students. Without enough sleep, students may not fully benefit from the unique educational and developmental opportunities offered at this critical period of their life. In sum, the study suggests adequate sleep can serve as a foundation of positive youth development, promoting leadership and need for cognition, and thereby enhancing their capacity for longer-term success. References Allison, P. D. (2001). Missing data. Sage Publications. Antonio, A. L. (2001). The role of interracial interaction in the development of leadership skills and cultural knowledge and understanding. Research in Higher Education, 42(5), 593–617. Astin, A. W., & Astin, H. S. (2000). Leadership reconsidered: Engaging higher education in social change. Battle Creek, MI: W. K. Kellogg Foundation. Badura, P., Geckova, A. M., Sigmundova, D., Sigmund, E., van Dijk, J. P., & Reijneveld, S. A. (2017). Do family environment factors play a role in adolescents' involvement in organized activities? Journal of Adolescence, 59, 59–66. Baldwin, D. C., Jr., & Daugherty, S. R. (2004). Sleep deprivation and fatigue in residency training: Results of a national survey of first-and second-year residents. Sleep, 27(2), 217–223. Buboltz, W. C., Jr., Brown, F., & Soper, B. (2001). Sleep habits and patterns of college students: A preliminary study. Journal of American College Health, 50(3), 131–135. Cacioppo, J. T., & Petty, R. E. (1982). The need for cognition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42(1), 116. Cacioppo, J. T., Petty, R. E., & Kao, C. F. (1984). The efficient assessment of need for cognition. Journal of Personality Assessment, 48(3), 306–307. Cacioppo, J. T., Petty, R. E., & Morris, K. J. (1983). Effects of need for cognition on message evaluation, recall, and persuasion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45(4), 805. Campbell, C. M., Smith, M., Dugan, J. P., & Komives, S. R. (2012). Mentors and college student leadership outcomes: The importance of position and process. The Review of Higher Education, 35(4), 595–625. Crowley, S. J., Wolfson, A. R., Tarokh, L., & Carskadon, M. A. (2018). An update on adolescent sleep: New evidence informing the perfect storm model. Journal of Adolescence, 67, 55–65. Curcio, G., Ferrara, M., & De Gennaro, L. (2006). Sleep loss, learning capacity and academic performance. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 10(5), 323–337. Dugan, J. P. (2006). Involvement and leadership: A descriptive analysis of socially responsible leadership. Journal of College Student Development, 47(3), 335–343. Dugan, J. P. (2017). Leadership theory: Cultivating critical perspectives. John Wiley & Sons. Dugan, J. P., & Komives, S. R. (2010). Influences on college students' capacities for socially responsible leadership. Journal of College Student Development, 51(5), 525–549. Duncan, G. J., Magnuson, K. A., & Ludwig, J. (2004). The endogeneity problem in developmental studies. Research in Human Development, 1(1–2), 59–80. Gordon, A. M., & Chen, S. (2014). The role of sleep in interpersonal conflict: Do sleepless nights mean worse fights? Social Psychological and Personality Science, 5(2), 168–175. Grandner, M. A., Patel, N. P., Gehrman, P. R., Xie, D., Sha, D., Weaver, T., et al. (2010). Who gets the best sleep? Ethnic and socioeconomic factors related to sleep complaints. Sleep Medicine, 11(5), 470–478. Hershner, S. D., & Chervin, R. D. (2014). Causes and consequences of sleepiness among college students. Nature and Science of Sleep, 6, 73–84. Hurtado, S., Alvarez, C. L., Guillermo-Wann, C., Cuellar, M., & Arellano, L. (2012). A model for diverse learning environments. Higher education: Handbook of theory and research (pp. 41–122). Dordrecht: Springer. Kahn-Greene, E. T., Lipizzi, E. L., Conrad, A. K., Kamimori, G. H., & Killgore, W. D. (2006). Sleep deprivation adversely affects interpersonal responses to frustration. Personality and Individual Differences, 41(8), 1433–1443. Komives, S. R., & Wagner, W. (Eds.). (2016). Leadership for a better world: Understanding the social change model of leadership development. NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Loes, C., Pascarella, E., & Umbach, P. (2012). Effects of diversity experiences on critical thinking skills: Who benefits? The Journal of Higher Education, 83(1), 1–25. Lund, H. G., Reider, B. D., Whiting, A. B., & Prichard, J. R. (2010). Sleep patterns and predictors of disturbed sleep in a large population of college students. Journal of Adolescent Health, 46(2), 124–132.
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Mayhew, M. J., Pascarella, E. T., Bowman, N. A., Rockenbach, A. N., Seifert, T. A., Terenzini, P. T., et al. (2016). How college affects students: 21st century evidence that higher education works, Vol. 3. John Wiley & Sons. Mayhew, M. J., Wolniak, G. C., & Pascarella, E. T. (2008). How educational practices affect the development of life-long learning orientations in traditionally-aged undergraduate students. Research in Higher Education, 49(4), 337–356. Meijer, A. M. (2008). Chronic sleep reduction, functioning at school and school achievement in preadolescents. Journal of Sleep Research, 17(4), 395–405. Padgett, R. D., Goodman, K. M., Johnson, M. P., Saichaie, K., Umbach, P. D., & Pascarella, E. T. (2010). The impact of college student socialization, social class, and race on need for cognition. New Directions for Institutional Research, 2010(145), 99–111. Pascarella (2007). Methodological report for Wabash national study of liberal arts education. Retrieved from https://centerofinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ WNSLAE_Research_Methods_March_2008.pdf. Pascarella, E. T., Wang, J. S., Trolian, T. L., & Blaich, C. (2013). How the instructional and learning environments of liberal arts colleges enhance cognitive development. Higher Education, 66(5), 569–583. Pascarella, E., Wolniak, G., Seifert, T., Cruce, T., & Blaich, C. (2005). Liberal arts colleges and liberal arts education: New evidence on impacts. ASHE Higher Education Report, 31(3). Patel, N. P., Grandner, M. A., Xie, D., Branas, C. C., & Gooneratne, N. (2010). “Sleep disparity” in the population: Poor sleep quality is strongly associated with poverty and ethnicity. BMC Public Health, 10(1), 475. Roberts, R. E., Roberts, C. R., & Duong, H. T. (2008). Chronic insomnia and its negative consequences for health and functioning of adolescents: A 12-month prospective study. Journal of Adolescent Health, 42(3), 294–302. Seifert, T. A., Goodman, K. M., Lindsay, N., Jorgensen, J. D., Wolniak, G. C., Pascarella, E. T., et al. (2008). The effects of liberal arts experiences on liberal arts outcomes. Research in Higher Education, 49(2), 107–125. Steinberg, L., & Morris, A. S. (2001). Adolescent development. Annual Review of Psychology, 52(1), 83–110. Wagner, W. E. (2016). Leadership for a better world: Understanding the social change model of leadership development. John Wiley & Sons. Weidman, J. (1989). Undergraduate socialization: A conceptual approach. Higher education: Handbook of theory and research: Vol. 5, (pp. 289–322). Springer. Wu, C. H., Parker, S. K., & De Jong, J. P. (2014). Need for cognition as an antecedent of individual innovation behavior. Journal of Management, 40(6), 1511–1534.
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Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Adolescence journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/adolescence
Brief report
Sleep deprivation and the development of leadership and need for cognition during the college years
T
Wei-Lin Chena, Jen-Hao Chenb,∗ a b
Montclair State University, USA Rutgers University, USA
ARTICLE INFO
ABSTRACT
Keywords: Cognitive motivation Health and human development Leadership Longitudinal analysis Sleep deprivation
Introduction: The epidemic of sleep deprivation among college students is alarming. Prior studies of college students' sleep deprivation have focused on academic outcomes and mental health problems. This study considers the impact of college students’ sleep deprivation on two key, developmental outcomes: leadership and need for cognition. Methods: This study is a secondary analysis of longitudinal data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education (N = 3,690), using random-effects and fixed-effects models to estimate the association between chronic sleep deprivation from freshman year to senior year and developmental outcomes. Results: Results from the random-effects model show that chronic sleep deprivation is negatively associated with lower scores in leadership skills ( = .09 P < . 001) and need for cognition ( = .08 P < . 001), after accounting for potential confounders. Results from the fixed-effects model that accounts for time-invariant unobserved variables show similar patterns for leadership skills ( = .09 P < . 01) and need for cognition ( = .06 P < . 01). Conclusions: This study demonstrates that chronic sleep deprivation has consequences for critical skills, suggesting that steps to promote college students’ sleep health may also enhance their positive development in leadership skills and need for cognition.
1. Introduction The college years are when students gain specialized knowledge and build human capital that enhances their employability, and also when students develop the key soft skills to learn and thrive after graduation (Astin & Astin, 2000; Komives & Wagner, 2016; Wu, Parker, & De Jong, 2014). Leadership and the need for cognition are two soft skills that have received considerable attention in the education literature (Hurtado, Alvarez, Guillermo-Wann, Cuellar, & Arellano, 2012; Komives & Wagner, 2016; Mayhew et al., 2016) and are key goals of liberal arts education (Pascarella, Wolniak, Seifert, Cruce, & Blaich, 2005; Seifert et al., 2008). Individuals with a high need for cognition are able to sort out information and generate task-related cognitive responses efficiently (Cacioppo, Petty, & Morris, 1983; Mayhew, Wolniak, & Pascarella, 2008) and leadership skills help individuals create a purposeful, collaborative, and values-based environment (Dugan, 2006; Dugan & Komives, 2010). Youth development research has demonstrated that organized activities, youth programs, and adult mentorship are important for developing leadership and need for cognition (Hurtado et al., 2012; Mayhew et al., 2016). And, the epidemic of sleep deprivation has
∗ Corresponding author. Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice, Center for Health Sciences, Rutgers University, 405-7 Cooper Street Camden, NJ 08102, USA. E-mail address: [email protected] (J.-H. Chen).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2019.04.003 Received 18 July 2018; Received in revised form 8 April 2019; Accepted 16 April 2019 Available online 30 April 2019 0140-1971/ © 2019 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Journal of Adolescence 73 (2019) 95–99
W.-L. Chen and J.-H. Chen
received considerable attention in the adolescent literature (Crowley, Wolfson, Tarokh, & Carskadon, 2018). There is evidence that sleep deprivation is high among college students (Buboltz Jr, Brown, & Soper, 2001; Lund, Reider, Whiting, & Prichard, 2010) and some studies have documented its negative consequences. However, so far, no studies have examined how sleep deprivation affects the development of leadership and need for cognition. Weidman's undergraduate socialization model (1989) is a useful conceptual framework that links sleep deprivation to leadership and need for cognition among college students. The model treats college as a key socialization field for youths' future success and integration in society (Antonio, 2001; Padgett et al., 2010), i.e., a time and place where extra-curricular activities, social interactions, and engagement in organized activities promote development. By participating in events and activities, students have positive interactions with peers and faculty members that internalize the norms, values, and expectations of the group. Undoubtedly, a key mission of higher education is to develop students' preference for critical thinking, which is the core of the construct of need for cognition (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982; Mayhew et al., 2016). In this way, socialization experience during college years promotes need for cognition. Social engagement and participation in activities are also critical for developing leadership because those skills have to be practiced. By working with peers to organize events, coordinate, and negotiate, students hone their capacities for collaboration, common purpose, citizenship, and more (Dugan, 2017). Thus, while students may not be socialized to lead, college provides an opportunity to learn from doing and to learn from role models (Campbell, Smith, Dugan, & Komives, 2012; Dugan & Komives, 2010; Wagner, 2016). Sleep deprivation can significantly affect the development of leadership and need for cognition by disrupting students' college life and socialization experience. First, sleep deprivation can increase sleepiness and fatigue during the daytime and lower energy levels (Crowley et al., 2018), which may disrupt students' participation in activities and reduce the time available to interact with others. Second, sleep deprivation increases negative moods, which may create more negative relationships with peers and teachers (Gordon & Chen, 2014; Kahn-Greene, Lipizzi, Conrad, Kamimori, & Killgore, 2006; Roberts, Roberts, & Duong, 2008). If there is less time for social participation and lower relationship quality, there may be fewer opportunities to develop leadership and internalize the value of the need for cognition. Hence, the study's key hypothesis: Chronic sleep deprivation negatively impacts development of leadership and need for cognition among college students. 2. Methods 2.1. Data This study uses data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education (WNS), a longitudinal study that aims to understand the role of liberal arts education in youth development and learning. The WNS started with a brief pilot survey of a random sample of 17,000 freshmen selected from 49 two-year and four-year institutions, including approximately 4,500 freshmen first contacted in the fall of 2006, approximately 3,400 freshmen first contacted in the fall of 2007, and 9,600 freshmen first contacted in the fall of 2008. Students who stayed in the study were interviewed in the spring semester of their freshman and senior year. For more information about the WNS, see Pascarella (2007) and Loes, Pascarella, and Umbach (2012). This study uses data only from the second (i.e., spring of freshman year) and third waves (i.e., spring of senior year) because the sleep deprivation and college experience instruments were not administered in the pilot wave. The final analytical sample also excludes community college students because most of them dropped out in the second wave, and excludes students who were in the second and third waves of survey but did not complete the assessments of leadership and need for cognition. The final sample size is 3,690. 2.2. Measure of sleep deprivation In the second and third waves, the WNS included a question about college students' experience of sleep deprivation: “How often do you feel that you are ‘sleep deprived’ (i.e., don't get enough sleep to function effectively)?” This question reflects the key aspect of chronic sleep deprivation (Hershner & Chervin, 2014) and is similar to questions used in other population-based surveys of sleep deprivation and sleep reduction (Baldwin Jr & Daugherty, 2004; Meijer, 2008). The answer categories included never, seldom, occasionally, frequently, and almost always. To focus on chronic sleep deprivation, responses were recoded into a dichotomous variable with “frequently” and “almost always” coded as one and others coded as zero. 2.3. Measures of leadership and need for cognition In the second and third waves, the WNS administrated the leadership scale developed by Dugan (2006). The original 68-item scale had high reliabilities (i.e., 0.935 for the second wave and 0.843 for the third wave) and the need for cognition scale the WNS used, modified from the original Cacioppo and colleagues’ scale (1984), also had high reliabilities (i.e., 0.897 for the second wave and 0.891 for the third wave). For more information about measuring and scaling the need for cognition in the WNS, see Pascarella (2007). These scales have been widely used in prior studies of leadership and need for cognition (Padgett et al., 2010; Pascarella, Wang, Trolian, & Blaich, 2013). In this study, the author created raw scores for each scale, per Dugan (2006) and Cacioppo, Petty, and
96
Journal of Adolescence 73 (2019) 95–99
W.-L. Chen and J.-H. Chen
Kao (1984), and standardized them by transforming raw scores to z-scores, for ease of interpretation. 2.4. Empirical strategy To link sleep deprivation and students’ developmental outcomes longitudinally, the analysis began with the random-effects model that controlled for cohort, age, gender, race/ethnicity, parental education, family income, binge drinking, smoking, self-rated health, having a dependent or not, grant/scholarship recipient, student loan recipient, off-campus employment, on-campus employment, credits earned, and time spent studying. The fixed-effects model was also applied to ease concerns about unobserved characteristics that may confound the relationships. The fixed-effects model generates a more conservative estimate, eliminating the impact of timeinvariant, unobserved characteristics by calculating the association based on within-individual variations. When a randomized experiment is not feasible, the model is preferred over traditional statistical methods, e.g., ANOVA (Duncan, Magnuson, & Ludwig, 2004). To deal with missing values in variables, the study used multiple imputation (Allison, 2001). 3. Results The descriptive statistics show that chronic sleep deprivation was prevalent: Over one-fourth of students reported chronic sleep deprivation during both freshman and senior years; about 15% of students reported chronic sleep deprivation in freshman year only, and another 15% of students reported chronic sleep deprivation in senior year only. From freshman year to senior year, average leadership skills and need for cognition increased slightly. Table 1 presents the standardized coefficients from the random-effects model and fixed-effects regressions. Results from the random-effects model show that chronic sleep deprivation was associated with decreases in leadership skills and need for cognition. The fixed-effects model shows the same patterns: Chronic sleep deprivation remained negatively associated with leadership skills and need for cognition, and the effect size remained substantial comparing to the effects of covariates. Taken together, the results support the hypothesis that chronic sleep deprivation is a predictor of college students’ developmental outcomes. As a check on the main analysis, the authors also conducted another sensitivity analysis with sleep deprivation as a five-point variable. The results were similar. Table 1 Longitudinal results of association between sleep deprivation and leadership and need for cognition (N = 3,690). Leadership
Chronic Sleep Deprivation Demographic Background Age Female Race (Ref: White) African American Asian Hispanic Unknown International Student Having a Dependent Highest Parental Education (Years) Family Income (Thousands) Cohort (Ref: 2006) 2007 2008 Health and Lifestyle Behaviors Self-Rated Health (from 1 to 5) Smoking Binge Drinking College Experience Grant/Scholarship Recipient Having Student Loan Off-Campus Work Per Week (Hours) On-Campus Work Per Week (Hours) Time Spent on Studying Per Week (Hours) Credits Earned Constant
Need for Cognition
Random Effects
Fixed Effects
Random Effects
Fixed Effects
-.09*** (.02)
-.09** (.03)
-.08*** (.02)
-.06** (.02)
0.00 (0.01) 0.11*** (0.03)
0.01 (0.01) −0.13*** (0.03)
0.19*** (0.06) −0.01 (0.07) 0.19*** (0.05) −0.04 (0.06) 0.10 (0.08) 0.11 (0.13) 0.01 (0.01) 0.00 (0.00)
−0.16** (0.06) −0.24** (0.10) 0.07 (0.07) 0.03 (0.06) −0.02 (0.12) −0.01 (0.12) 0.04*** (0.01) 0.00 (0.00)
0.08 (0.04) 0.10** (0.04)
−0.07 (0.07) 0.07 (0.10)
0.23*** (0.02) −0.13* (0.06) −0.06*** (0.02)
0.16*** (0.03) −0.08 (0.09) −0.04 (0.03)
0.09*** (0.02) 0.05 (0.05) −0.15*** (0.02)
0.10*** (0.02) −0.05 (0.06) −0.06* (0.03)
0.02 (0.04) 0.03 (0.03) 0.01 (0.01) 0.02*** (0.01) 0.05*** (0.01) 0.01** (0.00) −1.54*** (0.22)
−0.02 (0.06) −0.03 (0.05) 0.00 (0.01) −0.01 (0.01) 0.03*** (0.01) 0.01* (0.00) −0.77*** (0.16)
0.08* (0.04) −0.06 (0.03) −0.02*** (0.01) 0.02*** (0.01) 0.07*** (0.01) 0.00 (0.00) −1.46*** (0.30)
0.01 (0.05) −0.12*** (0.03) −0.01* (0.01) −0.01 (0.01) 0.03*** (0.01) 0.00 (0.00) −0.39*** (0.11)
+p < .1. *p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001. All regressions controlled the full set of potential confounders, including age, gender, race/ethnicity, health and life behaviors, and college experience.
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4. Discussion Other research has shown that sleep deprivation has become a threat for college students’ health and learning. This study adds to our understanding of sleep deprivation in college students by showing that its consequences extend to two key, soft skills: leadership and need for cognition. In the analysis, the association between sleep deprivation and the outcomes of interest remains statistically significant after controlling for a wide range of potential confounders and after using the fixed-effects model to eliminate the effect of time-invariant unobserved confounders. The results thus suggest that sleep deprivation may undermine the development of leadership and need for cognition among college students. The study, however, has some limitations. First, the sample is not a nationally representative sample of college students. Second, the WNS includes no objective measure of sleep deprivation, has no data from the sophomore and junior years, and has no information about commuting. However, the commuting time may only have a minor impact on students’ sleep because (at spring semester of the first year) about 89% of the students who participated in the WNS survey lived in dorms. As such, for majority of them, commuting may not be an issue in the study. Furthermore, drop-out patterns may affect the interpretation of the results. By spring semester of the senior year, about 49% of the freshman year sample had dropped out of the survey, due to transfer, drop-out from school, or refusing the survey. A sensitivity analysis shows that students with certain characteristics, i.e., low parental education, African-American, no financial aid, low need for cognition in spring of freshman year, were more likely to drop-out of the survey. Because individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds also typically have a higher prevalence of sleep deprivation (Grandner et al., 2010; Patel, Grandner, Xie, Branas, & Gooneratne, 2010), it is possible that the analysis underestimated the association between sleep deprivation and developmental outcomes. Moreover, the single-item measure of sleep deprivation precludes further analysis of how patterns of sleep deprivation affects these developmental outcomes. Because the WNS did not ask respondents about other aspects of sleep, a fuller longitudinal analysis of college students’ sleep patterns and developmental outcomes is not possible. Nevertheless, the study's robust findings have several implications. The study of adolescent development has focused on family context and social interactions as opportunities for developing critical skills (Badura et al., 2017; Steinberg & Morris, 2001). 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