Does Interpersonal Interaction Really Improve Emotion, Sleep Quality, and Self-Efficacy among Junior College Students?

This study discusses the correlation between teenagers’ real-life interpersonal interactions and teenagers’ online interpersonal interactions with regards to emotion, sleep quality, and self-efficacy. This study adopted a cross-sectional design that included a survey using a structured questionnaire which included demographic data, the Chinese version of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE), the Real Interpersonal Interaction Scale (RIIS), and the Internet Interpersonal Interaction Scale (IIIS). This study enlisted 917 teenage students (age = 17.16 ± 1.48 years). The study found that RIIS had significant negative correlations with DASS and PSQI scores and a significant positive correlation with GSE. Namely, the greater the degree of real-life interpersonal interaction, the lower the degree of negative emotion. Likewise, the more satisfactory sleep quality is, the higher self-efficacy is. In addition, IIIS scores demonstrate significantly positive correlations with DASS and PSQI scores. Therefore, the greater the degree of online interpersonal interaction, the greater the levels of negative emotion, and the poorer the sleep quality is. This study showed that online interpersonal interaction may not improve emotions, sleep quality, or self-efficacy among junior college students. However, real-life interpersonal interaction may improve those three parameters.