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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1482309
This article is part of the Research Topic Youth Mental Health, Particularly in Asian Populations View all 46 articles

The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Sleep Duration and Mental Health among Middle School Students: A Three-Year Cross-Sectional Survey

Provisionally accepted
Kai-yun Dou Kai-yun Dou Ru-bao DONG Ru-bao DONG *
  • Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in late 2019, and until the Chinese government downgraded the pandemic control measures to Category B management in January 2023, various epidemic prevention measures were implemented across regions based on the local spread of the virus. Correspondingly, educational formats shifted between online and offline teaching according to the pandemic situation. Changes in daily life and teaching methods, along with the high initial mortality rate of COVID-19, have had varying degrees of negative impact on the mental health (MH) of adolescents. Purposes: This study aimed to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic status on the sleep duration (SD) and MH of adolescents, investigate the relationship between SD and MH in middle school students, and evaluate the protective effect of SD on MH. Methods: Using a convenient sampling method, 6 junior high schools and 3 senior high schools in Guiyang City, China, were selected. Random samples from two classes per grade in each school were chosen for the survey. The study was conducted annually for three consecutive years using the Mental Health Inventory of Middle-school students (MMHI-60) scale and a self-designed questionnaire. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS version 26.0 software, employing ANOVA, cross-tabulation, and generalized linear models to examine the relationship between SD and MH scores.

    Keywords: SARS-CoV-2, Epidemic prevention and control, Middle school student, sleep duration, Mental Health

    Received: 18 Aug 2024; Accepted: 02 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Dou and DONG. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Ru-bao DONG, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, China

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