Sex differences in the relationship between morningness-eveningness components, mood and well-being among Bangladeshi university students

ABSTRACT

On the Morningness/Eveningness (M/E) continuum, eveningness has been related to mood disorder and poor well-being. M/E differs between men and women throughout their lifespan. However, there is a lack of information on sex differences in the relationship between M/E, mood, and well-being. This study aimed to test sex differences in the M/E, mood, and well-being relationship with consideration of two components of M/E, morning affect, and morning preference. A sample of 981 Bangladeshi university students (607 men) aged 18 to 27 (M = 21.95) completed Bangla versions of the Composite Scale of Morningness (CSM), BRUnel Mood Scale (BRUMS), and Positive Mental Health scale (PMH-scale) through an online survey. Multiple regression analyses were used to test the relationship of M/E components with mood and well-being. The results showed that the relationship between M/E, mood, and well-being was greater in women than in men. A lower score on both M/E components was related to higher negative moods (anger, confusion, depression, fatigue, and tension) and poor well-being. In regression analysis, only morning affect was found to be significant, which means that morning affect mainly contributes to the relation between M/E, mood, and well-being. Finally, sex by morning affect interaction indicated that the relation was higher for women. Therefore, higher eveningness could be more hazardous for women than men. Greater insight into the independent contribution of morning affect may facilitate understanding of the chronotype effects on psychological outcomes in men and women.

KEYWORDS:

• Morning affect
• morningness-eveningness components
• chronotype
• sex differences
• circadian preference
• mood
• well-being

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the respondents for their voluntary participation in this study. This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Department of Psychology, University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author [MHAK] upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

J.F.D.-M. is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Grant PID2020-116600RB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033).