Investigating the Moderating Role of School Type (Regular vs. Gifted) in the Relationship between Perceived Stress, Cyberspace Addiction, by Analyzing the Mediating Role of Psychological Flexibility in Female Students

Mona Sarkehaki; Afsaneh  Farashbandi; Saham  Naseri

doi:10.18502/tbj.v24i5.21980

Mona Sarkehaki Corresponding Author: Master's Degree in Personality Psychology, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz Branch, Ahvaz, Iran.
Afsaneh Farashbandi Assistant Professor in Educational Psychology, Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz Branch, Ahvaz, Iran.
Saham Naseri Master of Science, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Islamic Azad University of Ahvaz, Khuzestan, Iran.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18502/tbj.v24i5.21980

Keywords: Sleep Quality, Psychological Flexibility, Perceived Stress, Cyberspace Addiction, Regular and Gifted Schools, Female Adolescents

Abstract

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to investigate the moderating role of school type (regular vs. gifted) in the relationship between perceived stress, cyberspace addiction, and sleep quality, by analyzing the mediating role of psychological flexibility in female students.

Methods: This descriptive-correlational study was conducted on 422 female high school students in Omidiyeh City, who were selected via multi-stage cluster sampling. Data were collected using the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen et al., 1983), the Adolescent Cyberspace Addiction Questionnaire (Sadeghzadeh et al., 2018), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and the Psychological Flexibility Questionnaire (Ben-Itzhak et al., 2014), and were subsequently analyzed through path analysis and multi-group analysis.

Results: The results indicated a significant difference between the model's paths in the two groups of regular and gifted student (Δχ²=16/68; df=5; P=0/001). Furthermore, comparing path coefficients (β) revealed that the negative effect of stress on reducing sleep quality (-0/55 vs. -0/31) and the negative effect of stress on reducing psychological flexibility (-0/48 vs. -0/29) were significantly stronger in gifted students compared to regular students. Also, the positive effect of psychological flexibility on improving sleep quality was significantly stronger in regular students (β = 0/48) compared to gifted students (β=0/32).

Conclusion: Therefore, it can be concluded that school type (gifted vs. regular) significantly moderates the structural relationships between perceived stress, psychological flexibility, and sleep quality.