Bidirectional association between sleep quality or duration and aggressive behaviour in early adolescents: A cross-lagged longitudinal study

Authors：Leilei Cao, Shaojie Wang, Yuan Li, Yonghan Li, Mengyuan Yuan, Gengfu Wang, Puyu Su

Source：Anal Biochem. 2023 May 15;669:115122.

DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2023.04.119

Abstract：

Background: Several cross-sectional studies have suggested a strongly positive link between sleep and aggressive behaviour; however, longitudinal studies reporting the relationship between sleep and aggressive behaviour are lacking. This study aimed to examine whether a bidirectional relationship exists between sleep quality or duration and aggressive behaviour in early adolescents.

Methods: A total of 1579 early adolescents (60.9 % boys) from the Chinese Early Adolescents Cohort study were included in this study. Data on sleep quality, sleep duration and aggressive behaviour collected at two time points (September 2019 and September 2021) were used, and the bidirectional relationship between sleep quality or duration and aggressive behaviour was examined using a cross-lagged model.

Results: The results revealed a bidirectional relationship between low sleep quality and highly aggressive behaviour. A shorter sleep duration did not predict highly aggressive behaviour, whereas only highly aggressive behaviour predicted a shorter sleep duration.

Conclusions: Sleep quality and aggressive behaviour were interrelated over time among adolescents. However, sleep duration did not predict aggressive behaviour, suggesting that sleep quality, instead of sleep duration, should be the primary target for managing aggressive behaviour.

中文摘要：

背景：一些横断面研究表明，睡眠和攻击性行为之间有强烈的正向联系。然而，报告睡眠和攻击性行为之间关系的纵向研究是缺乏的。本研究旨在检查睡眠质量或持续时间与青少年攻击性行为之间是否存在双向关联。

方法：来自中国青少年队列研究的1579名早期青少年（60.9%为男孩）被纳入本研究。在两个时间点（2019年9月和2021年9月）收集的睡眠质量、睡眠持续时间和攻击性行为的数据，并使用了交叉滞后模型研究了睡眠质量或持续时间与攻击性行为的双向关系。

结果：结果显示，低睡眠质量与高攻击性行为之间存在双向关系。较短的睡眠时长不能预测高度攻击性行为，而只有高度攻击性行为能预测较短的睡眠时长。结论：睡眠质量和攻击性行为在青少年中是相互关联的。然而睡眠时长并不能预测攻击性行为，这表明睡眠质量，而不是睡眠时长应成为管理攻击性行为的主要目标。