Predictors of sleep for women in male-dominated majors

Access to thesis restricted until 07/2023.Women college students have been found to have worse sleep quality and satisfaction with sleep when compared to men. On top of erratic schedules and sleep habits, there are many potential contributing factors to sleep disturbance among college students. These factors may include the reciprocally causal constructs of negative affectivity and emotion dysregulation – as they have been found to act as maintaining processes in difficulties with sleep. Moreover, research on male-dominated fields and majors has found an abundance of additional stressors particularly for women. As there has been no current research on the role of gender-typicality of major in women’s sleep, it is crucial to examine constructs related to sleep such as negative affectivity, emotion dysregulation, and social belongingness as this may provide information on the development of sleep difficulties in women in male-dominated fields and subsequently options related to its reduction and prevention. Women college students (n = 44 in gender-neutral majors, n = 37 in male-dominated majors) recruited via email and Introductory to Psychology courses, were asked to complete self-report measures of negative affectivity, emotion dysregulation, social belongingness, and sleep. Results show that emotion dysregulation (but not negative affectivity or social belongingness) significantly predicted sleep quality and quantity in women students, but major type did not moderate these findings. There were no differences in sleep quality or quantity based on major type. Future research should seek to expand and diversify the sample and examine objective measures of sleep to determine the role of major type in women college students sleep.Thesis (M.A.) ; (M.S.