0654 Association Between Chronotype and Mental Health in Canadian University Students

Abstract

Introduction: Chronotype (diurnal preference) is related to mental health, with evening chronotypes being more susceptible to psychological disorders than intermediate and morning types. The present study investigated the relationship between chronotype and mental health in Canadian university students. Methods: We surveyed 2,361 students aged 18-35 enrolled at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Participants completed the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10). We conducted separate Bonferroni-corrected one-way ANCOVAs with post-hoc paired comparisons to determine the relationship between chronotype and mental health variables, adjusted for the effect of age. Results: 72.5% of participants were female with an average age of 22.2 years (SD=3.73). 55.6% of participants were classified as intermediate, with 33.9% being evening type, and 10.4% as morning type. 27.9% and 61.7% of the sample were in the clinically significant range on the depression and anxiety scales, respectively. Overall, psychological distress was in the mild to moderate range (M=24.31, SD=8.51). There was a significant difference in depression scores between chronotype [F(2,2350)=37.47, p