Stressful Life Events, Sleep Quality and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury in Chinese Adolescents: The Moderating Effect of Sensation Seeking
Open accessAbstract
Despite the growing evidence that stressful life events are associated with adolescent non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), few studies have investigated the mediating and moderating mechanisms underlying this link. The current study examined whether sleep quality mediated the link between stressful life events and NSSI and whether this mediating process was moderated by adolescent sensation seeking. The participants were 1006 Chinese adolescents (48.21% boys; mean age = 13.16 years, SD = 0.67). They completed the Life Events Checklist, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale, and NSSI Questionnaire. The PROCESS macro for SPSS was used to examine the hypothesized moderated mediation model. The results showed that sleep quality significantly mediated the positive association between stressful life events and adolescent NSSI. Moreover, this mediating pathway was moderated by sensation seeking. Specifically, the risk impact of stressful life events on NSSI through sleep quality was significant only among adolescents with high-level sensation seeking but not among those with low-level sensation seeking. These findings provide intervention insights to reduce the risk of adolescent NSSI.
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Negative body image may indirectly compromise sleep by triggering emotional problems like anxiety and depression.
“Notably, there appears to be a complex interplay between sleep quality and body image, where negative body image may indirectly compromise sleep by triggering emotional problems like anxiety and depression. For instance, adolescents dissatisfied with their body image may ruminate on their appearance at night, leading to difficulties falling asleep or disrupted sleep [14].”
From Correlation between latent categories of body image and sleep quality in adolescent orthodontic patients. (2025) · cites this paper as [14]
The Introduction and Results discuss stressful life events as predictors of poor sleep quality, but do not address negative body image or appearance-related rumination. A search for body image, appearance dissatisfaction, anxiety, and depression found no passage describing the claimed pathway from body image through emotional problems to disrupted sleep. Page numbers are unavailable in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.77)
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- Authors
- Ye, Y., Wang, H., Liao, X., Yu, C., & Zhang, W.
- Affiliations
- South China Normal University (CN)
- Guangzhou University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Yu, Chengfu
- Zhang, Wei
- Venue
- Behavioral Sciences
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2024-03-30
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 286
- ISSN
- 2076-328X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC11047468
- OpenAlex
- W4393356352
- Cited by
- 5
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 1
- FWCI
- 2.50
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Behavioral Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- National Social Science Foundation of China (BBA230064, 32271115)
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (BBA230064, 32271115)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and related disorders
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Mental Health Research Topics
- Keywords
- non-suicidal self-injury, life events, sleep quality, sensation seeking, adolescents, moderated mediation, Chinese adolescents, impulsive behavior
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