Eveningness diurnal preference associated with poorer socioemotional cognition and social functioning among healthy adolescents and young adults

ABSTRACT

Recently there has been growing interest in associations between sleep, emotion, and social functioning. Less is known about relationships between chronotype preference and socioemotional cognition and functioning, particularly among adolescents, who experience dramatic normative shifts in diurnal preference, affective functioning, and social competence. Fifty-five healthy adolescents and young adults completed a self-report chronotype preference measure, a computerized measure of socioemotional cognition, and a semi-structured clinical interview assessing interpersonal functioning. Greater eveningness preference was associated with poorer socioemotional cognition and social functioning in this age group. Future studies should assess these relationships across development and using objective measures of circadian timing.

KEYWORDS:

• Chronotype
• diurnal preference
• morningness-eveningness
• social functioning
• socioemotional cognition
• adolescents

Acknowledgments

The authors express their gratitude to Ivanka Ristanovic, MA, LPC, for her support with data management. We also thank the participants and their families for their valuable contribution to research.

Declaration of Interest

J.R.L.A has received consulting fees from Behavioral Innovations Group. S.H.K. has received research support and/or consulting fees from the following commercial sources: Akili Interactive, Bose, Jazz, KemPharm, Medgenics, Neos, Otsuka, Rhodes, Shire, and Sunovion. V.A.M. does not have any conflicts of interest to report.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health [K23MH108704,R21/R33MH103231]