Sixian Wang

In recent years, adolescent sleep problems have received increasing attention. Stressful life events have been found to be a risk factor for sleep problems, but little is known about the components that may explain or influence this association. To investigate this, the present study tested whether depressive symptoms mediated the association between stressful life events and Chinese freshmen' sleep problems, as well as whether emotional regulation skills moderated this process. A sample of 513 Chinese freshmen (32.2% males, mean age = 19.04 years, SD = 1.21) completed anonymous questionnaires regarding stressful life events, depressive symptoms, emotional regulation and sleep problems (examined using Adolescent Self‐Rating Life Events Checklist, Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale for Children, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and Response to Stress Questionnaire). The study included covariates such as gender, age, and socioeconomic level. Depressive symptoms were shown to partially mediated the association between stressful life events and sleep problems in structural equation models. Emotional regulation moderated the relationship betweenn stressful life events and depressive symptoms. The results show that promoting emotional regulation could be beneficial in preventing and intervening sleep problems related to stressful life events.

In recent years, adolescent sleep problems have received increasing attention. Stressful life events have been found to be a risk factor for sleep problems, but little is known about the components that may explain or influence this association. To investigate this, present research tested whether depressive symptoms mediated the association between stressful life events and adolescents' sleep problems, as well as whether emotional regulation skills decreased this process. A sample of 513 Chinese university students (32.2% males, mean age = 19.04 years, SD = 1.21) completed anonymous questionnaires regarding stressful life events, depressive symptoms, emotional regulation and sleep problems (examined using Adolescent Self-Rating Life Events Checklist, Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale for Children, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and Response to Stress Questionnaire). The studies included covariates such as gender, age, and socioeconomic level. Depressive symptoms were shown to partially mediated the association between stressful life events and sleep problems in structural equation models. Emotional regulation buffered the negative effects of stressful life events on depressive symptoms. The results show that promoting emotional regulation could be beneficial in preventing and intervening sleep problems related to stressful life events.

There is mixed evidence regarding whether video games affect executive function. The inconsistent results in this area may have to do with researchers’ conceptualizations of executive function as a unified construct or as a set of independent skills. In the current study, 120 university students were randomly assigned to play a video game or to watch a screen record of the video game. They then completed a series of behavioral tasks to assess the shifting, updating and inhibiting subcomponents of executive function. Scores on these tasks were also used as indicators of a component-general latent variable. Results based on analysis of covariance showed that, as predicted, the inhibition subcomponent, but not the updating or the shifting subcomponent, was significantly enhanced after gaming. The component-general executive function was not enhanced after gaming once the results were controlled for other subcomponents. The results were unrelated to participants’ self-reported positive and negative affect. The findings add key evidence to the literature on executive function and potentially contribute to the therapeutic use of video games to maintain executive function in the aged population.