Momentary emotional states in primary school children: combined effects of chronotype X time-of-day

ABSTRACT

Synchrony effects regarding mood diurnal fluctuations (i.e., better mood at optimal and worse mood at suboptimal times-of-day, corresponding to the interaction between chronotype* time-of-day) have been studied in adolescents and adults. However, evidence in children is lacking. We investigated the interactive effect of chronotype and time-of-day on primary school children’s momentary emotional states, in a naturalistic setting. From an initial pool of 298 3^rd/4^th graders (7–11 years-old), 134 Morning (M)-type and Evening (E)-type children were selected using the parental-report Children ChronoType Questionnaire (CCTQ). Potential covariates were assessed based on parental questionnaires. Students completed emotional states’ measures on the first (9 a.m.) and last lessons (4 p.m.) of the school day, in a counterbalanced order. Given the intercorrelations between emotional measures, a composite score of momentary emotional states was determined. There was a small-to-moderate significant interactive effect of chronotype*time-of-day in the overall momentary emotional states score. M/E-types showed better overall momentary emotional states when tested at their optimal time-of-day. Chronotype or time-of-day main effects were non-significant, and the overall momentary emotional states score did not correlate with sleep or psychopathological symptoms. In the present study, children overall momentary emotional states in a naturalistic setting varied depending on chronotype combined with time-of-day.

KEYWORDS:

• Chronotype
• morningness-eveningness
• time-of-day
• emotional states
• synchrony effect
• children

Acknowledgments

The present study was conducted as a part of a larger research project -True Times: Morningness-eveningness and time-of-day effects on cognitive performances and emotional states: New lessons from children and adolescents (PTDC/PSI-ESP/32581/2017, CENTRO-01-0145-FEDER-032581), cf. https://transparencia.gov.pt/fundos-europeus/beneficiarios-projetos/projeto/CENTRO-01-0145-FEDER-032581. We would like to acknowledge our funding sources: Portugal 2020, Centro 2020, FEDER (UE), and FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e da Tecnologia/Portuguese national funding agency for science, research, and technology).

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, A.A.G, upon reasonable request.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Despite the apparent lack of NA circadian rhythmicity in adults and adolescents (e.g., Randler and Weber 2015), NA was included in this study due to insufficient research on the potential daily variation of NA in children (e.g., Arbabi et al. 2015) and the results obtained in more recent studies (e.g., Emens et al. 2020).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Regional Development Fund / Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER), through the Portugal-2020 (PT2020) and the Central Regional Operational Programmes / Programa Operacional Regional do Centro (Centro 2020), and by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology / Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) - I.P./ MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC). Projet grant references: PTDC/PSI-ESP/32581/2017. CENTRO-01-0145-FEDER-032581.