Gender differences affecting the relationship between sleep attitudes, sleep behaviors and sleep outcomes

Search for this publication on Google Scholar
Zendels, P., Ruggiero, A., & Gaultney, J. F. (2021). Gender differences affecting the relationship between sleep attitudes, sleep behaviors and sleep outcomes. Cogent Psychology. https://doi.org/doi:10.1080/23311908.2021.1979713
Download PDF

Description

Research has found that discrepancies exist in many health-related behaviors, leading to discrepancies in health outcomes, between men and women. Among these, women tend to have more positive attitudes towards sleep and better sleep hygiene practices despite often having poorer sleep quality and insufficient sleep duration. The present study operationalized sleep hygiene as multi-faceted behaviors rather than a unitary construct. Using the PROCESS macro, we analyzed whether an interaction exists between gender and sleep attitudes to predict sleep hygiene, if sleep hygiene mediated the relationship between sleep attitudes and sleep outcomes, and if this indirect relationship is moderated by gender. Within our sample, gender moderated sleep attitudes predicting environment- and eating-related sleep hygiene behaviors. Sleep quality was indirectly predicted by sleep attitudes via pre-sleep arousal-related sleep hygiene behaviors. Additionally, gender moderated the indirect relationship between sleep attitudes and sleep quality through environment-related sleep hygiene behaviors. These findings reinforce the relevance of studying sleep attitudes in combination with demographic characteristics as predictors of sleep outcomes, and the usefulness of conceptualizing sleep hygiene as separable factors. It may help inform development of potential interventions intended to improve sleep and suggest directions for future studies.

Details
Title

Gender differences affecting the relationship between sleep attitudes, sleep behaviors and sleep outcomes

Author(s)

Zendels, Philip
Ruggiero, Aria
Gaultney, Jane F.

UNC Charlotte Affiliate Type

Graduate

Extent

1 online resource

Date Published

2021

Material Type

Journal article

Genre

articles

Resource Type

text

Abstract

Research has found that discrepancies exist in many health-related behaviors, leading to discrepancies in health outcomes, between men and women. Among these, women tend to have more positive attitudes towards sleep and better sleep hygiene practices despite often having poorer sleep quality and insufficient sleep duration. The present study operationalized sleep hygiene as multi-faceted behaviors rather than a unitary construct. Using the PROCESS macro, we analyzed whether an interaction exists between gender and sleep attitudes to predict sleep hygiene, if sleep hygiene mediated the relationship between sleep attitudes and sleep outcomes, and if this indirect relationship is moderated by gender. Within our sample, gender moderated sleep attitudes predicting environment- and eating-related sleep hygiene behaviors. Sleep quality was indirectly predicted by sleep attitudes via pre-sleep arousal-related sleep hygiene behaviors. Additionally, gender moderated the indirect relationship between sleep attitudes and sleep quality through environment-related sleep hygiene behaviors. These findings reinforce the relevance of studying sleep attitudes in combination with demographic characteristics as predictors of sleep outcomes, and the usefulness of conceptualizing sleep hygiene as separable factors. It may help inform development of potential interventions intended to improve sleep and suggest directions for future studies.

Subjects--Topics

Sleep
Health attitudes

Is Part Of

Cogent psychology

Language

English

Published Version (Please cite this version)

doi:10.1080/23311908.2021.1979713

Publisher's Version

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23311908.2021.1979713

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/work:247

Rights

This item may be protected by copyright and other related rights. Atkins Library provides access to this item for educational and research purposes only; other uses require the permission of the copyright holder.