Caffeine’s impact on student stress: New research insights

Students who lean on coffee and energy drinks to power through nonstop studying may be fueling the very stress, anxiety, and depression they are trying to fight, new research warns.

Study: Caffeine Intake Mediates the Relationship Between Problematic Overstudying and Psychological Distress. Image credit: PeopleImages/Shutterstock.com

Excessive caffeine intake may be associated with and potentially aggravate psychological distress in students with problematic overstudying behavior, as reported by a new study published in the journal Nutrients.

Background

Caffeine is the most widely consumed psychoactive substance worldwide. Primarily obtained from coffee, caffeine improves alertness, attention, cognitive functions, and performance during physically and mentally demanding tasks. These properties make caffeine most popular among university students, who sometimes consume energy drinks to boost their performance while studying.

Moderate caffeine intake has been found to improve mood due to its energizing effects. However, existing evidence indicates that excessive caffeine intake can lead to increased stress, anxiety, and panic attacks. Caffeine is known to directly act on the Hypothalamic–Pituitary–Adrenal axis, leading to increased secretion of stress hormones, potentiation of cardiovascular and neuroendocrine stress reactivity, and subsequent induction of overall stress level.

Given the higher reliance of students on caffeine intake for performance boosting and the possible negative impact of caffeine on psychological distress, the current study was designed to investigate whether caffeine intake mediates the association between problematic overstudying and psychological distress among university students.

Problematic overstudying, also known as compulsive studying behavior or study addiction, is an addictive behavior and an early form of work addiction. Such behavior can potentially reduce functioning in other life domains and trigger negative health consequences.

Like the characteristic features of excessive caffeine intake, study addiction is associated with states of high alertness and arousal despite increasing fatigue, which in turn can lead to high and chronic stress and poor quality of life. Given these similarities, the current study aimed to explore the stress-mediating role of caffeine among students with study addiction.

Study design   

The study included two separate groups of university students: 436 students in the first group and 3421 students in the second group, including undergraduate, postgraduate, and PhD students.

The Bergen Study Addiction Scale and Perceived Stress Scale-4 were used to assess participants’ study addiction and psychological distress, including stress, anxiety, and depression. All participants were asked to provide information on their daily caffeine intake for the mediation analysis.

Key findings

Higher levels of study addiction symptoms were linked with greater caffeine intake and higher levels of perceived stress, anxiety, and depression in both groups.

The study analysis revealed that caffeine intake partially mediates the relationship between study addiction and perceived stress in both study groups. A similar mediating effect of caffeine intake on the relationship between study addiction and anxiety and depression was observed only among students from the second group.

Study significance

The study suggests that caffeine intake may partially contribute to increased risk of stress, anxiety, and depression among university students with study addiction. Students who are addicted to studying are more likely to consume caffeine, as observed in the study.

The mediating effects of caffeine were small and partial, highlighting the presence of other factors, including excessive efforts, perfectionism, and social isolation, which may also contribute to higher levels of perceived stress, anxiety, and depression in addicted individuals.   

Students consider excessive caffeine intake as a coping strategy, as caffeine triggers arousal, improves attention and alertness, reduces fatigue and pain, enhances mood, and helps distract from problems. However, in students with study addiction, high intake of caffeine may function as a maladaptive and potentially addictive pattern of mood regulation, rather than an effective coping strategy.

The study finds a positive association between caffeine intake and depression among students from the second group, which contradicts previous reports stating that higher caffeine intake is associated with a lower risk of depression. However, in line with the current study findings,  prior research has reported that higher caffeine intake is associated with an increased risk of suicidal tendency among shift workers.

This study suggests that shift workers consume more caffeine due to long working hours and sleep deprivation, which in turn increases the risk of depression. The current study findings may be partially explained by similar mechanisms associated with high study workload, long studying hours, and high academic stress related to study addiction.

The study did not find any mediating effect of caffeine intake on the relationship between study addiction and anxiety and depression among students belonging to the first group. This might be due to insufficient statistical power from the small sample size.

Overall, the study findings suggest limiting caffeine intake and promoting healthy alternatives, such as rest and recovery, to support the mental health of students with problematic overstudying.

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