Background/Purpose The purpose of this study was to build a Theory of Planned Behavior based model to predict the sleep intentions and behaviors of undergraduate college students attending a Midwestern University.
Method A cross-sectional convenience sample of 197 undergraduate students from a large Midwestern University was surveyed. In arriving at the sample size, an alpha of 0.05, a power of 0.80, and a population correlation coefficient of 0.20 were considered. The instrumentation process included a qualitative elicitation study for item generation, face and content validity by a panel of six experts, stability reliability by test-retest, construct validity through confirmatory factor analysis, internal consistency by Cronbach's alpha, and predictive validity through path analysis.
Analysis/Results The baseline model identified significant paths between each of the exogenous and endogenous variables. Modification indices indicated an additional path between perceived behavioral control and sleep behavior could improve model fit. Re-specification of the model with the additional path provided good fit to the data (χ 2 (df=2, n=197)=1.908, p=0.385, NFI=0.990, GFI=0.996, AGFI=0.971, RMSE=0.000). Among the predictors of behavioral intention, perceived behavioral control was the strongest (β=0.457, p < 0.001), followed by attitude toward the behavior (β=0.231, p < 0.001) and finally subjective norm (β=0.179, p = 0.003). In predicting sleep behavior, the model revealed that for each +1 increase in both perceived behavioral control and behavioral intention, total sleep increased by 25.21 minutes.
Conclusions This investigation specified a theory-based, structural model for application in the development and measurement of interventions targeting undergraduate college student sleep health.