Academic Involution and Sleep Health in Chinese Vocational Students: A Resilience-Buffered Mediation via Perceived Stress

Objective: To test a conditional process in which perceived stress (PSS) mediates the link between academic involution (INV) and sleep health (SQ), with psychological resilience (RE) buffering the INV→PSS, PSS→SQ, and INV→SQ paths among Chinese vocational students.Methods: A cross-sectional online survey at a public vocational college yielded N=663 complete responses (forced-response). Measures included an 18-item INV scale, PSS-4, a multidimensional sleep-health index (SQ), and BRS-6. Analyses comprised descriptives, group tests, correlations, and PROCESS Model 59 with 5,000 bias-corrected bootstraps; sex, grade, and place of origin were covariates.Results: INV correlated positively with PSS and negatively with SQ; PSS correlated negatively with SQ; RE correlated positively with SQ and negatively with PSS. In PROCESS, INV→SQ (B=−1.028, p<.001) and PSS→SQ (B=−2.555, p<.001) were negative, and INV→PSS positive (B=.522, p<.001). All three interactions supported buffering by RE: INV×RE→PSS (B=−.072, p=.021), PSS×RE→SQ (B=.452, p<.001), INV×RE→SQ (B=.190, p=.033). The direct INV→SQ effect weakened from Low/Mean/High RE (B=−.584/−.394/−.204), becoming nonsignificant around +1 SD (Johnson–Neyman). The indirect effect INV→PSS→SQ also decreased with higher RE.Conclusion: Academic involution relates to poorer sleep partly through elevated perceived stress. Resilience systematically attenuates these associations, indicating a modifiable protective target for campus health initiatives aimed at safeguarding students’ sleep.