Socioeconomic Factors, Stress, and Sleep Quality: Implications for Student Wellbeing in Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

Interwoven forms of stressors including, but not limited to, socioeconomic stressor, academic stressors, and sleep disturbances are more and more affecting the wellbeing of college students in developing regions. The research investigates the impact of these factors on the psychological and emotional health of the students who are pursuing their education in the government college situated in the Khushab District of the Punjab province of Pakistan. The qualitative strategy was used, with the participant group being 20 students of the same age, chosen on the basis of the data saturation principle, by using a semi-structured interview protocol developed by the authors. Thematic analysis exposed four significant themes, which are financial strain, academic burden, psychological distress, and poor quality of sleep. Respondents also expressed high stress factors that were connected to financial insecurity, round-the clock academic stress, and the absence of psychological counsel at the institution. Emotional fatigue and loss of academic motivation was both the result of and the cause of sleep disturbances. Lazarus and Folkman, Selye, Ryff, theories concerning sleep regulation, and the models of wellbeing and stress were applied to the findings. The need in the study points out low cost and context-sensitive interventions including peer-led systems of support, visiting counsellors, and integrated mental health education to be urgently needed. Such understanding is used to make pragmatic and scalable wellbeing policies in the Pakistani environment in the case of public colleges. A bigger mixed-method sample could be used in further research towards generalize more findings about the future research.