Cross-sectional associations of maladaptive sleep-hygiene behaviors with athlete engagement among provincial- and municipal-level athletes in Sichuan, China.
Zhou Y, Xu Y, Zhang M, Li H. · Frontiers in psychology · 2026
Purpose: Maladaptive sleep-hygiene behaviors are potentially modifiable daily practices, yet their relationship with the psychological state that sustains sport involvement remains unclear. This study examined cross-sectional associations among maladaptive sleep-hygiene behaviors (MSHB), multidimensional fatigue, difficulties in emotion regulation, and athlete engagement, including three model-based indirect associations.
Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was completed by 317 adult athletes recruited from provincial- and municipal-level teams in Sichuan Province, China. Participants represented table tennis, badminton, tennis, basketball, volleyball, and football. The Sleep Hygiene Index, the Chinese Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory, the DERS-16, and the Athlete Engagement Questionnaire were administered. A reflective partial least squares structural equation model was estimated with 5,000 bootstrap resamples. Measurement quality, construct differentiation, common-
Method: diagnostics, out-of-sample prediction, demographic adjustment, alternative cross-sectional specifications, and subgroup robustness were evaluated.
Results: More frequent MSHB were associated with greater fatigue [ β = 0.491, 95% CI (0.408, 0.573)], greater difficulties in emotion regulation [ β = 0.178, 95% CI (0.079, 0.274)], and lower athlete engagement [ β = -0.264, 95% CI (-0.370, -0.161)]. Fatigue was associated with greater difficulties in emotion regulation [ β = 0.588, 95% CI (0.500, 0.673)] and lower engagement [ β = -0.325, 95% CI (-0.446, -0.205)]; difficulties in emotion regulation were also associated with lower engagement [ β = -0.232, 95% CI (-0.351, -0.108)]. The total indirect association was [ β = -0.268, 95% CI (-0.338, -0.204)], and the model explained 47.2% of engagement variance. Demographic adjustment yielded comparable estimates. Reverse-order and parallel specifications fitted the cross-sectional covariance structure equally well.
Conclusion: Within the sampled setting, more frequent MSHB co-occurred with greater fatigue, more difficulties in emotion regulation, and lower athlete engagement. Fatigue accounted for the largest specific indirect association. The single-occasion self-report
Design: leaves actual sleep disturbance, temporal sequence, and causal effects unresolved.