{
  "abstract": "Background Academic involution in China has been linked to heightened stress among university students, yet the depressive symptoms as a central indicator of emotion regulation failure mechanisms associated with academic stress to sleep-related maladaptive behaviors remain unclear. This study investigates whether social media addiction and depressive symptoms sequentially mediate the academic stress and bedtime procrastination relationship while examining the moderating role of chronotype. Methods A sample of 541 Chinese university students (46.2% male) completed self-report measures of academic stress (PAS), social media addiction (BSMAS), depressive symptoms (PHQ), bedtime procrastination (BPS), chronotype (rMEQ), and physical activity (PAQ-AD). Two Moderated chain mediation models were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) with latent interaction terms (LMS) in R. Results Academic stress was positively associated with bedtime procrastination through a sequential pathway: academic stress → social media addiction → depressive symptoms → bedtime procrastination (b = 0.016, 95% CI [0.01, 0.03], p = .003). Chronotype significantly moderated the depressive symptoms → bedtime procrastination path (b3 = –0.298, p < .001), such that the positive association was weaker for evening-type than morning-type students. The moderated mediation model explained 56% of the variance in bedtime procrastination, compared to 38% in the mediation-only model. Limitations Cross-sectional design precludes causal inferences; single-item measure of academic stress; findings primarily based on undergraduate students, limiting generalizability. Conclusions Academic stress contributes to bedtime procrastination via avoidant coping and affective dysregulation. Eveningness paradoxically buffers the depressive symptoms–bedtime procrastination link. Chronotype-informed interventions may be promising.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 2,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Yanyan He"
    },
    {
      "name": "Xiaoqian Yu"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8mbwwewfwgkkv.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.31234/osf.io/j5zna_v1",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "8mbwwewfwgkkv",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/j5zna_v1/",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "bepress",
      "Emotion"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Physiology"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Quantitative Methods"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Social and Behavioral Sciences"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Social and Personality Psychology"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3205|Sleep and related disorders"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7212300062",
  "pdf_url": "https://osf.io/j5zna/download",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-09",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8mbwwewfwgkkv.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:25:30Z",
      "native_id": "j5zna",
      "source": "osf",
      "url": "https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/j5zna_v1/"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "bepress:Physiology",
      "subfield": "physiology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Academic stress, depressive symptoms, and bedtime procrastination: The paradoxical buffering role of eveningness in a moderated chain mediation model",
  "title_text": "Academic stress, depressive symptoms, and bedtime procrastination: The paradoxical buffering role of eveningness in a moderated chain mediation model",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:25:30Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8mbwwewfwgkkv",
  "venue": "PsyArXiv",
  "versions": [
    {
      "doi": "10.2991/978-2-494069-31-2_403",
      "pid": null,
      "relation": "published-as",
      "title": null,
      "venue": null
    }
  ]
}