Yue Lei, Cui Naixue, Jiang Li, Cui Naisong
School of Nursing and Rehabilitation, Shandong University, No. 44 Wenhuaxi Road, Jinan, Shandong Province, China.
Education Bureau of Rizhao, No. 132 Beijing Road, Donggang District, Rizhao, Shandong Province, China.
J Affect Disord. 2023 May 1;328:175-182. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2023.02.049. Epub 2023 Feb 17.
Screen use before sleep is shown to be positively related to emotional problems. However, whether this relationship was mediated by circadian phenotypes (i.e., chronotype and social jetlag) remains unclear.
Data from two independent adolescent surveys among 2685 and 1368 adolescents, respectively, were used. Adolescents reported screen use before sleep (yes/no and screen time), chronotype, social jetlag, and emotional problems using questionnaires. Serial mediation analyses were performed.
Adolescents who reported screen use before sleep showed later chronotype and greater social jetlag, which was further associated with a higher level of emotional problems. Such relationships held for screen use as a yes/no variable and screen time. The serial indirect effect of chronotype and social jetlag accounted for 6.2%-16.7% of the total effect of screen use before sleep on emotional problems.
The use of a cross-sectional design did not allow the establishment of causal links between the variables. All data were self-reported by adolescents, and might be subject to report bias and recall bias.
These findings contributed to the existing literature by examining the mediating effect of chronotype and social jetlag in the relationship between screen use before sleep and emotional problems from a circadian rhythm perspective. Healthy media use habits and interventions targeting circadian characteristics may work towards promoting emotional health in adolescents.
睡前使用电子设备与情绪问题呈正相关。然而，这种关系是否由昼夜节律表型（即生物钟类型和社会时差）介导仍不清楚。
使用了分别来自两项针对2685名和1368名青少年的独立调查数据。青少年通过问卷报告睡前使用电子设备的情况（是/否及使用时长）、生物钟类型、社会时差和情绪问题。进行了系列中介分析。
报告睡前使用电子设备的青少年表现出更晚的生物钟类型和更大的社会时差，这进一步与更高水平的情绪问题相关。这种关系在将使用电子设备作为是/否变量以及使用时长的情况下均成立。生物钟类型和社会时差的系列间接效应占睡前使用电子设备对情绪问题总效应的6.2%-16.7%。
横断面设计的使用不允许在变量之间建立因果联系。所有数据均由青少年自我报告，可能存在报告偏差和回忆偏差。
这些发现从昼夜节律角度研究了生物钟类型和社会时差在睡前使用电子设备与情绪问题之间关系中的中介作用，为现有文献做出了贡献。健康的媒体使用习惯和针对昼夜节律特征的干预措施可能有助于促进青少年的情绪健康。
