Chronotype preference matters for depression in youth

ABSTRACT

Morningness/eveningness (M/E) preference is an important circadian rhythm indicator with strong individual variation. M/E chronotype has been found to be correlated with depression in adults, yet the relationship is less clear in children and adolescents. Additionally, poor sleep quality is another commonly studied risk factor for depression. The aims of the present study are to investigate the independent effects of M/E chronotype on youth depression using both self-report and parental-report questionnaires. We also evaluated how poor sleep quality may affect the relationship through a mediating or moderating effect. In total, 2,139 students attending grades 1 to 7 participated in this study. They completed questionnaires regarding M/E chronotype, depression, and sleep quality. A total of 1,708 parents also participated and filled out parental-reports of emotional and behavioral problems of their children. The prevalence of self- and parental-report depression was 16.8% and 12.8% among young students, respectively. Overall, 15.4% of the students were the eveningness type. Being an eveningness type was independently associated with self-report depression after adjustment for poor sleep quality (OR = 1.86, 95% CI = 1.07–3.24). We also observed that poor sleep quality mediated the influence of M/E chronotype on self-report depression among students aged 7–13 years (p < 0.001). On the other hand, being an eveningness type was associated with a number of parental-report emotional and behavioral problems in the students, in addition to depression, although these associations become non-significant after adjusted for poor sleep quality. Our results demonstrate the importance of M/E chronotype on youth depression and poor sleep quality partly mediates this effect.

KEYWORDS:

• Depression
• morningness/eveningness
• sleep quality
• youth

Acknowledgments

We would like to especially thank all subjects who agree to participate in this study. We also thank MH Su, JH Shen, PC Chu, and SS Huang who assisted for data collection.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflict of interest.

Funding

This study was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan (MST101-2314-B-002-128-MY3 grant to Dr. P-H Kuo and NSC99-2511-S-040- 004-MY3 grant to Dr. H-J Yang).

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan (MST101-2314-B-002-128-MY3 grant to Dr. P-H Kuo and NSC99-2511-S-040- 004-MY3 grant to Dr. H-J Yang).