Childhood environmental risk and youth bedtime procrastination: A path model with life history strategy and sense of control as mediators

Bedtime procrastination is a serious threat to youths' sleep quality and physical and mental health. It is affected by various psychological and physiological factors, but few studies focused on the impact and internal mechanism of childhood experience on bedtime procrastination in adulthood from the evolutionary and developmental perspective. This study aims to explore the distal factors of bedtime procrastination among young people, that is, the association between childhood environmental risk (harshness and unpredictability) and bedtime procrastination, as well as the mediating roles of life history (LH) strategy and sense of control. By convenience sampling, 453 Chinese college students aged 16 to 24 (55.2 % males, Mage = 21.21 years) completed questionnaires regarding demographics, childhood environmental harshness (from neighborhood, school, and family), and unpredictability (parental divorce, household moves, and parental employment changes), LH strategy, sense of control, and bedtime procrastination. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesis model. The results showed that childhood environmental harshness and unpredictability were both positively associated with bedtime procrastination. Sense of control had a partial mediating role between harshness and bedtime procrastination (B = 0.02, 95%CI = [0.004, 0.042]), and between unpredictability and bedtime procrastination (B = 0.01, 95%CI = [0.002, 0.031]), respectively. LH strategy and sense of control had a serial mediating role between harshness and bedtime procrastination (B = 0.04, 95%CI = [0.010, 0.074]), and between unpredictability and bedtime procrastination (B = 0.01, 95%CI = [0.003, 0.029]), respectively. The findings suggest that childhood environmental harshness and unpredictability are potential predictors of youths' bedtime procrastination. Young people can reduce bedtime procrastination problems by slowing LH strategies and improving their sense of control.