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Stressful life events and subjectively rated sleep quality among older adults in China: the roles of positive and negative attitudes towards ageing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2022

Dan Zhang Open the ORCID record for Dan Zhang [Opens in a new window] ,
Hangqing Ruan ,
Melody Ge Gao ,
Feinian Chen  and
Shuzhuo Li
Dan Zhang*
Affiliation:
Institute for Population and Development Studies, School of Public Policy and Administration, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
Hangqing Ruan
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Maryland Population Research Center, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA
Melody Ge Gao
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Maryland Population Research Center, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA
Feinian Chen
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Shuzhuo Li
Affiliation:
Institute for Population and Development Studies, School of Public Policy and Administration, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
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Abstract

Sleep is an integral part of individuals' health and wellbeing. Despite evidence showing that social stressors are important contributors to older adults' sleep problems, how the accumulative stressful life events (SLEs) and ageing attitudes independently and jointly affect sleep quality among older adults in developing countries remains unclear. This study examined the effects of SLEs on subjectively rated sleep quality among older adults in China, and explored the potential mediating and moderating roles of positive and negative ageing attitudes on the above association. Using data from the 2014 China Longitudinal Ageing Social Survey, we had complete data for 7,780 older adults aged 60 and older. We employed logistic regression models and the Karlson–Holm–Breen decomposition method. Our findings indicated that SLEs significantly increased the risk of poor sleep quality, especially for those who had experienced two or more SLEs during the past year. Positive ageing attitudes were associated with lower odds of poor sleep quality, whereas negative ageing attitudes were related to higher odds of poor sleep quality. Moreover, the mediation analyses suggested that SLEs were associated with poor sleep quality via negative ageing attitudes. The moderating effects further documented that higher levels of positive ageing attitudes can significantly attenuate the deleterious impact of SLEs on sleep quality. The findings highlight the significance of SLEs for older adults' sleep quality and shed light on the importance of ageing attitudes to improve older adults' sleep in China as well as other low- and middle-income countries, where the social safety nets are still underdeveloped.

Keywords

sleepstressful life eventsattitudes towards ageingChina
Type
Article
Information
Ageing & Society , First View , pp. 1 - 19
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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