ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Children and Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fped.2025.1602512
This article is part of the Research TopicChildren's Health and Screen TimeView all 24 articles
Sleep quality moderated the mediating effect of BMI and waist circumference on the relationship between screen time and mental health in Chinese adolescents
Provisionally accepted
- 1North University of China, Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, China
- 2Research Center for Health Promotion of Children and Adolescents, Taiyuan Institute of Technology, Taiyuan city, China
- 3College of Sports Science, Jishou University, Jishou, China
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Objective: This study aimed to investigate whether body mass index and waist circumference can moderate the relationship between screen time and adolescent mental health, and whether sleep quality can moderate these effects. Method: Using a stratified cluster random sampling method, 5,713 adolescents aged 13–18 years were selected from six administrative regions in China for a questionnaire survey. Data analysis used statistical methods such as Pearson correlation analysis. The mediation model was tested using the PROCESS (version 3.3) SPSS macro model 4 developed by Hayes, and model 7 was used to test the moderation model. Results: Screen time was negatively correlated with adolescent mental health (r = -0.10, p < 0.001) and positively correlated with BMI (r = 0.03, p < 0.05). Screen time has a significant negative effect on adolescents' mental health (β = -0.20, SE = 0.07, p < 0.01, 95% CI = [-0.34, -0.06]), while BMI mediates the relationship between screen time and mental health (β = -0.89, SE = 0.12, p < 0.001, 95% CI = [-1.11, -0.66]). Additionally, sleep quality moderates the relationship between screen time and mental health in adolescents (β = 0.04, SE = 0.01, p < 0.001, 95% CI = [0.02, 0.07]). There was no correlation between screen time and waist circumference (r = -0.005, p > 0.05), but there was a negative correlation between waist circumference and mental health (r = -0.04, p < 0.01). Waist circumference did not mediate the relationship between screen time and mental health (p > 0.05), nor did sleep quality moderate the relationship between screen time and waist circumference (p > 0.05). Conclusion: BMI plays a partial mediating role between screen time and mental health among Chinese adolescents. Additionally, sleep quality weakens the association between screen time and mental health. Therefore, it is recommended to alleviate mental health issues caused by excessive screen time among adolescents by promoting sleep quality.
Keywords: screen time, Mental Health, Body Mass Index, Waist Circumference, sleep quality, Mediating effect
Received: 29 Mar 2025; Accepted: 01 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Wu, Wu, Ma and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Huipan Wu, Research Center for Health Promotion of Children and Adolescents, Taiyuan Institute of Technology, Taiyuan city, China
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