Association of happiness with morningness - eveningness preference, sleep-related variables and academic performance in university students

What Keeps Night Owls Well During the Week? Sleep Onset Consistency as a Moderator Between Morningness-Eveningness and Adolescent Development

OBJECTIVES

A preference for eveningness - one's perception of being most alert later in the day - is associated with negative developmental outcomes in adolescence. Sleep onset consistency is protective against such outcomes. Toward a more nuanced understanding of relations between sleep-wake processes and adolescent development, we examined weeknight sleep onset consistency as a moderator of relations between eveningness and multiple indicators of development.

METHOD

A sample of 272 high-school students (Mage = 17 years, SD = 9.12 months; n = 133 identified as female; 41% non-Hispanic Black/African-American, 59% non-Hispanic White/European-American) participated in a week of at-home sleep actigraphy assessment in 2017-2018. Adolescents reported their morningness - eveningness, internalizing symptoms (depression, anxiety), positive affect (optimism and subjective happiness), and physical health, and mothers reported on youths' behavior problems. Relations were examined between morningness - eveningness and each indicator of development; sleep onset consistency was examined as a moderator of these associations.

RESULTS

On average, adolescents with a preference for eveningness had higher levels of externalizing behaviors and internalizing symptoms and lower levels of positive affect and physical health compared to peers with a preference for morningness (Bs = -0.27*-0.12***). Each association was moderated by weeknight sleep onset consistency. Across all indicators of development, evening-preferring youth with more consistent weeknight sleep onset had 0.49-0.72 SD better outcomes on average than evening-preferring youth with less consistent weeknight sleep onset.

CONCLUSIONS

Falling asleep at roughly the same time each night can protect adolescent night owls from behavior problems and internalizing symptoms and can promote their positive affect and physical health.

Aptitude measurement: is measurement validity compromised in the morning

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the General Aptitude Test (GAT), a national instrument for the measurement of aptitude/achievement in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a function of daytime testing. Participants were 722 students who took on the GAT across morning and evening administrations in a within-person pre-post design. Participants were matched for gender, parental education, and test center characteristics (i.e., size). The GAT was tested for its psychometric properties and its measurement invariance across time of day. Results pointed to a significant misfit using an exact invariance protocol. Specifically, there was a large number of non-invariant items pointing to Differential Item Functioning (DIF). Second, internal consistency reliabilities were consistently lower during morning testing compared to evening testing as evidenced using both statistical and visual means. Concerns about dimensionality were also raised for the morning compared to the evening administration. Last, comparison of performance levels indicated that morning testing was associated with significant decrements in performance across all domains compared to performance levels during evening testing. The results have implications for the validity of measurement and public testing policy if test validity during morning administration is compromised.

Examination of non-cognitive variables affecting academic achievement: a conceptual model proposal

Psychological factors have a significant role in better understanding mechanisms that affect students' academic performance. The intense and long-term stress of the pandemic process has made it necessary to rethink the components which effect the academic achievement of pupils. The purpose of this study is to examine the variables that predict the academic achievement of university students during the pandemic process and to present a model on these variables. The study group has 241 students who continue their undergraduate education in Turkey. The data were collected with a self-description form and 6 scales. The partial Least Squares (PLS) Structural Equation Model was used to analyses the developed research model. In consequence of the study, a relationship was obtained between academic procrastination (AP) and multi-screen addiction (MSA). Covid-19 burnout has a crucial effect on AP, multiscreen addiction, and psychological well-being variables. Motivation and self regulation-attention variables are explanatory of AP. This study contributes to expanding the nomological network regarding the effects of Covid-19 on the psychological well-being and behavior of individuals.

Predicting Math Performance of Middle Eastern Students: The Role of Dispositions

The present research examines the contribution of individual differences in chronotype and self-efficacy to the math performance of male and female students in STEM and no-STEM majors. Questionnaires assessing the selected individual differences were distributed to students of Middle Eastern descent enrolled in math courses of the general education curriculum. Summative assessment indices were used to measure performance comprehensively across the entire semester (course grades) and as a one-time occurrence (final test grades). The contribution of morningness and self-efficacy to both course and test performance of STEM students was sensitive to the interaction of gender and major. Instead, neither factor contributed to no-STEM students’ course and test performance. These findings were used to plan improvements in the instruction and advising of students in STEM majors, thereby complying with a key tenet of action research.

Impact of Academic Support on Anxiety and Depression of Chinese Graduate Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Mediating Role of Academic Performance

INTRODUCTION

The COVID-19 pandemic broke out and has spread globally since 2019. It became a public health concern. This pandemic has brought tremendous changes in students' lives and modes of learning. Graduate students are likely to be more affected as they are a part of a special training program. According to the main-effect model, social support has a positive effect on mental health. The pandemic has exerted a negative impact on the social support of individuals, and as a result, the behavior of a person is more likely to be at risk and has resulted in psychological crisis in people/individuals.

METHODS

A sample of 3137 graduate students responded to the instrument developed to assess the impact of the pandemic on the academic activities and performance, Self-rating Anxiety Scale and Self-rating Depression Scale.

RESULTS

The results showed that: 1) the pandemic impacted the academic support and performance of graduate students in varying degrees, 21% of graduate students experienced anxiety, and 33.9% of graduate students experienced depressive symptoms in varying degrees; 2) academic support variables (ie, academic exchange with mentors and peers) and academic performance variables (ie, data collection and thesis writing) were significantly associated with anxiety and depressive symptoms; 3) the model fitted the data well (RMSEA = 0.029; SRMR = 0.014; TLI = 0.99; CFI = 0.996). The direct effects of academic support on anxiety and depressive symptoms were significant. The impact on academic performance played a mediating role between the impact on academic support, anxiety, and depressive symptoms.

DISCUSSION

Academic support significantly affected academic performance, which in turn affected anxiety and depressive symptoms. So, it implies that, due to the pandemic, the academic support for graduate students had decreased, resulting in deterioration in academic performance, causing anxiety and depressive symptoms.