Insomnia severity and its correlates among English as a second language (ESL) college students

Abstract

Objective

Little is known about insomnia characteristics among the English as a second language (ESL) student population. This study compared insomnia severity between ESL students and English native-speaking students and identified correlates of insomnia in the ESL population.

Participants

College students (N = 352) from a private university in the Northeastern United States, including 22.4% (N = 79) ESL students.

Methods

For this cross-sectional study, participants completed the Insomnia Severity Index and indices of common risk factors of insomnia along with acculturation and language anxiety.

Results

ESL students reported higher insomnia severity than their US counterparts after controlling for depression, anxiety, and demographics. General anxiety, language anxiety, and cognitive pre-sleep arousal were selected as the strongest predictors of insomnia among the ESL population.

Conclusions

Findings suggest that ESL college group is vulnerable to greater insomnia, and language anxiety is unique and important correlate of insomnia in this population.

Keywords:

• College students
• ESL
• insomnia
• language acculturation
• language anxiety

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of United States of America and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of Syracuse University. The current dataset is not publicly available but may be requested from the corresponding author.

Additional information

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.