The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Latinx College Students’ Mental Health: Exploring the Role of Sleep, Social Support, and Attitudinal Familismo Support

Abstract

College students experienced various disruptions to their daily life and changes to their physical and mental health because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Much remains unknown about protective factors that could buffer the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Latinx college students’ mental health. Cross-sectional survey data collected during the pandemic was used to explore whether global sleep quality mediated associations between COVID-19 factors (i.e., negative experiences and racial/ethnic bias) and mental health outcomes (i.e., depressive and anxiety symptoms), and whether perceived social support and attitudinal familismo support served as moderators of this association. The current study included 490 Latinx college students (Mage = 19.1, 72.9% female). The mediation model had acceptable fit: χ2 (df = 4) = 11.243, p = 0.024; RMSEA = 0.06; CFI = 0.99, SRMR = 0.01. Mediation results indicated that negative COVID-19 experiences (β = 0.12, 95% CI [0.09, 0.16], p = 0.001) and COVID-19 racial/ethnic bias (β = 0.04, 95% CI [0.01, 0.07], p = 0.023) were associated with worse global sleep quality, and, in turn, more severe mental health outcomes. There were no significant moderation effects. Implications for possible interventions to support Latinx college students’ mental health, and future directions are discussed.