The Effects of Adolescents’ Sleep Quality on Academic Helplessness through Attention Problems and Self-Esteem

The purpose of this study is to examine the indirect effects of adolescents’ sleep quality in academic helplessness through attention problems and self-esteem. For this purpose, data from 2,265 first year middle school students from the ‘Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey 2018’ were used. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 27.0 and AMOS 23.0. As a result, the adolescents' sleep quality was positively related to self-esteem and negatively related to attention problems and academic helplessness. Furthermore, sleep quality directly predicted attention problems, and attention problems directly predicted academic helplessness and indirectly through self-esteem. Finally, the indirect effects of sleep quality on academic helplessness through attention problems and self-esteem were significant. This research confirms that adolescent academic helplessness should be addressed not only through sleep quality and attention problems, but also through the psychological issue of self-esteem. These results are significant in that they provide a basis for educational and counseling programs to alleviate adolescent academic helplessness in South Korean culture, where academic performance is a major task of adolescence.