Latent Changes in Perceived Quality of Sleep Related to the COVID-19 Quarantine Measures in Italian University Students: Understanding the Role of Personality and Internalizing Symptoms

Abstract

The present online retrospective study aimed at evaluating the perceived sleep quality before the start of the lockdown measures and during the lockdown in a sample of Italian university students (N = 307). Participants were administered the Italian translation of the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 36-item version (PID-5-36) in order to assess the relationships between sleep, dysfunctional personality domains and internalizing symptomatology. Latent difference factor (LDF) model was used to estimate latent change in PSQI scores; all analyses on the relationships between the PSQI and the dysfunctional personality domain measures and internalizing symptoms were carried out using latent factor scores. Our findings showed that selected dysfunctional personality traits were significantly associated with changes in perceived quality of sleep among adult university students during the lockdown in Italy. The relationship between PID-5-36 Negative Affectivity and changes in the perceived quality of sleep was only partially mediated by the severity of self-reported depression. The assessment of perceived depressive symptom severity and Negative Affectivity may prove clinically useful for carrying out preventive interventions on sleep quality.

Keywords

• sleep quality
• covid-19 pandemic
• personality domains
• internalizing symptoms.