(PS7-47) Exploring the Relationship Between Past-month Sleep Quality, Emotion Dysregulation, and Disordered Eating Among Community Adolescents

Introduction: Disordered eating (DE) is common among adolescents and has similar health consequences to those of diagnosed eating disorders. Emotion dysregulation, which involves difficulties understanding, accepting, and responding to emotional experiences, has been positively linked to DE among non-clinical samples of adolescents. Evidence suggests that emotion dysregulation is associated with greater sleep problems, and that poor sleep is indirectly associated with mood and anxiety disordered through emotion dysregulation. Yet, the relationship between sleep quality and emotion dysregulation in the context of DE remains unclear. The current study assessed the direct effects of past-month sleep quality and emotion dysregulation on past-month DE, and whether past-month sleep quality exacerbated the effects of emotion dysregulation on DE.

Methods: A sample of 418 community adolescents (14-17 years, M_age = 15.98; 55.98% White; 44.73% girls; 63.86% heterosexual) were recruited through social media and completed self-report measures assessing DE, sleep quality, emotion regulation, as well as depression and anxiety symptoms in the past month. A multiple regression analysis was conducted to assess the direct and interactive effects of past-month sleep quality and emotion dysregulation on past-month DE, while controlling for depression and anxiety symptoms.  

Results: The direct effect of emotion dysregulation on past-month DE was significant (b = 0.10, SE= 0.03, p = 0.004), whereas the direct effect of past-month sleep quality on past-month DE was not significant (b = 0.54,SE = 0.33, p = 0.11), when controlling for depression and anxiety symptoms. Moreover, past-month sleep quality did not moderate the relationship between emotion dysregulation and DE (b = -0.03, SE = 0.02, p = 0.16).

Conclusion: Emotion dysregulation is strongly linked to past-month DE among adolescents, whereas sleep quality was not associated with past-month DE and poor sleep did not exacerbate this relationship. Findings suggest that emotion dysregulation may be a significant risk factor for DE in teens, thus representing an important and modifiable treatment target for DE. Future research should explore the temporality of this relationship, whether other sleep domains may further affect this relationship, and examine whether targeting emotion dysregulation reduces DE in adolescents.