Morningness-eveningness and mental health: Initial evidence of the moderating roles of mattering and anti-mattering

Abstract

Mental health problems are more prevalent in evening-oriented individuals than in their morning-oriented counterparts. Recently, research has offered first insights into how the negative effects of eveningness on mental health and well-being can be magnified or alleviated depending on accompanying psychological characteristics. In the current study, we evaluated how eveningness relates to mattering and anti-mattering and whether mattering and anti-mattering can moderate the association between eveningness and mental health. The participants were 692 Polish adults (337 women, 355 men) aged between 21 and 57 years (M ± SD: 39.76 ± 9.63). All participants completed measures of morningness-eveningness and depressive and anxiety symptoms, the General Mattering Scale (GMS) and the Anti-Mattering Scale (AMS, see https://osf.io/3ak4v/). Conducted analyses showed that 1) the Polish versions of GMS and AMS have appropriate reliability and validity, 2) eveningness is negatively associated with mattering and positively associated with anti-mattering, depressive, and anxiety symptoms, and 3) the magnitude of the association between eveningness and mental health symptoms increased with higher anti-mattering and lower mattering. Overall, this study presents the first evidence of how feelings of being important and being valued may buffer against the negative effects of eveningness on mental health.