Articles and issues

Background. Academic burnout and poor sleep are common among university students, and both are linked to psychological distress. Few studies have examined whether sleep quality helps explain the association between burnout and distress in student populations outside Western Europe, North America and East Asia. Methods. In a cross-sectional survey conducted between March and May 2025, 1,184 undergraduate students at four public universities in Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir and Erzurum completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory–Student Survey, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale. Mediation was tested with structural equation modeling and bias-corrected bootstrap confidence intervals, adjusting for sociodemographic and academic covariates. Results. Overall, 61.8% of students reported poor sleep quality and 26.9% reported very high psychological distress. Academic burnout was associated with poorer sleep quality (β = 0.36) and with greater distress (direct β = 0.40). Sleep quality partially mediated the association between burnout and distress (indirect β = 0.12, 95% CI 0.09–0.15), accounting for 23% of the total effect. Exhaustion was the burnout dimension most strongly associated with poor sleep, and the indirect effect did not differ significantly between women and men. Conclusions. Poor sleep is a plausible pathway linking academic burnout to psychological distress among Turkish university students. Campus mental health services could combine burnout prevention with sleep-focused interventions, although longitudinal studies are needed to establish the direction of these associations.

Concern that social media harms adolescent mental health has shaped public debate and policy, from school phone bans to proposed age limits, yet the research evidence remains contested. Large cross-sectional studies typically find small negative associations between time spent on social media and well-being, while longitudinal and experimental studies yield smaller, inconsistent or null effects at the population level. This review argues that much of the apparent contradiction reflects three features of the literature rather than the simple presence or absence of harm. First, reliance on self-reported screen time, which correlates only moderately with logged use, obscures what adolescents actually do online. Second, average effects conceal substantial heterogeneity: a minority of adolescents, particularly those with existing vulnerabilities, appear to experience meaningful harm, while others benefit from social connection and identity exploration. Third, associations vary with developmental timing, with evidence of heightened sensitivity in early adolescence that differs by gender. We summarize evidence on specific mechanisms, including sleep displacement, cyberbullying, appearance-based social comparison and problematic use, and contrast them with documented benefits for social support. We conclude that research and policy should move beyond total screen time toward measures of content, context and individual susceptibility, and we outline priorities for study design, researcher access to platform data and the evaluation of regulatory interventions.

Background. Intergenerational co-residence remains common in Mexico and is often assumed to protect older adults against loneliness and depression, but population aging and migration are reshaping household structures. Evidence on how specific living arrangements relate to later depressive symptoms is limited. Methods. We conducted a secondary analysis of the 2018 and 2021 waves of the Mexican Health and Aging Study, including 8,914 respondents aged 60 years and older in 2018. Living arrangements in 2018 were classified as living alone, with a spouse only, or in two-generation, three-generation or skipped-generation households. Elevated depressive symptoms in 2021 were defined as a score of 5 or more on a nine-item version of the CES-D. Survey-weighted logistic regression adjusted for baseline depressive symptoms and sociodemographic and health characteristics. Results. In 2021, 30.7% of respondents had elevated depressive symptoms. Compared with living with a spouse only, living alone (adjusted OR 1.38, 95% CI 1.12–1.70) and living in a skipped-generation household (adjusted OR 1.47, 95% CI 1.09–1.98) were associated with higher odds of elevated symptoms, whereas two- and three-generation households did not differ significantly. Among unmarried respondents, co-residence with adult children was associated with lower odds of elevated symptoms than living alone (adjusted OR 0.71, 95% CI 0.57–0.88). Conclusions. Co-residence with adult children appears protective mainly for older Mexicans without a partner, while older adults raising grandchildren without the middle generation are at elevated risk. Mental health and social programs should target these groups rather than assume that extended family households meet older adults' needs.