Circadian Preferences, Sleep Quality and Sleep Patterns, Personality, Academic Motivation and Academic Achievement of university students

Abstract

In the current study, the relationships among Circadian Preferences, Sleep Quality and Sleep Patterns, Personality, Academic Motivation and the Academic Achievement of university students are examined. 1343 university students (62.8% females and 37.2% males) participated in the study. Data was gathered from each participant using a Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Adjective Based Personality Test (ABPT), Academic Motivation Scale (AMS-C) and Descriptive Questionnaire, completed voluntarily. A regression analysis model revealed the following predictors: corrected Midpoint of Sleep, Academic Motivation, Social Jetlag, Conscientiousness, Intrinsic Motivation toward Accomplishment, Intrinsic Motivation to Experience Stimulation and Neuroticism, explaining 15.1% of the variance of Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA). Meanwhile, CGPA scores of earlier chronotypes were higher than those of later chronotypes. Corrected Midpoint of Sleep, global PSQI, Conscientiousness, Extrinsic Motivation-External Regulation and Intrinsic Motivation to Experience Stimulation, Social Jetlag, Extraversion, Intrinsic Motivation toward Accomplishment and Intrinsic Motivation to Know emerged as significant predictors of MEQ explaining the 26.7% of the variance. Conscientiousness, CGPA, Openness to Experience, Neuroticism and Social Jetlag were the significant predictors of AMS-C explaining 14.7% of the variance in Academic Motivation. Analysis in Sleep Quality presented that 13.4% of the variance was explained by chronotype preference, Average Sleep Length (ASL), Neuroticism, corrected Midpoint of Sleep and Extraversion. Moreover, in the female sample both Sleep Quality and Academic Motivation of morning type students were better than those of evening types and those of neither type. Meanwhile regression analysis shows that in all Personality traits Academic Motivation and sub-domains of Academic Motivation are significant predictors; and in some Personality traits, ASL, circadian typology and Academic Achievement emerged as significant predictors. These results suggested that Circadian Preferences, Sleep Quality and Sleep Patterns, Personality and Academic Motivation were interrelated and had a significant effect on Academic Achievement. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.