Social jetlag refers to the chronic shift in sleep timing between work and free days and has been associated with a variety of negative physical and psychological outcomes. Existing research on social jetlag has relied heavily on cross-sectional studies, preventing researchers and practitioners from assessing the effects of social jetlag over time. The current study used longitudinal data to explore the directionality of the association between social jetlag and depressive symptoms as well as the longitudinal associations between social jetlag, academic performance, and wellbeing in college students. Gender and race were also assessed as potential moderators of these associations. Cross-lagged panel analysis using Amos for SPSS revealed that social jetlag predicted depressive symptoms both concurrently adjusting for covariates and longitudinally in unadjusted models. This finding suggests that sleep disturbances may precede mood concerns, although causality cannot be proven due to the design of the current study. PROCESS moderation analyses indicated that social jetlag did not significantly predict academic performance or wellbeing over time, and neither gender nor race moderated these associations. Future research is needed to further assess the short- and long-term outcomes of social jetlag using prospective, well-controlled studies and objective measures of sleep timing.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:vcu.edu/oai:scholarscompass.vcu.edu:etd-6832 |
| Date | 01 January 2019 |
| Creators | Reid, Morgan P |
| Publisher | VCU Scholars Compass |
| Source Sets | Virginia Commonwealth University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Theses and Dissertations |
| Rights | © The Author |
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