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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Nutr.
Sec. Sport and Exercise Nutrition
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1382068
This article is part of the Research Topic Nutrition for Team and Individual Sport Athletes View all 14 articles

The association between diet and sleep with internalising symptoms in young athletes: serial multiple mediation models

Provisionally accepted
Yun Gao Yun Gao 1Xingyi Yang Xingyi Yang 2Lei Wang Lei Wang 2*
  • 1 Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China
  • 2 Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study examined the mediating effects of sleep quality on the relationship between dietary patterns and internalising symptoms in young athletes. The current crosssectional study involved 758 Chinese young athletes. The adapted Australian Athletes Diet Index was used to assess dietary patterns, and sleep was measured using the Athletes Sleep Screening Questionnaire. The Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 scale and the Patient Health Questionnaire 9-item scale were used to assess symptoms of anxiety and depression. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) analysis was used to examine the mediating role of sleep quality in young athletes. Raw scores of chronotypes, sleep quality, anxiety and depression were calculated for the statistical analysis. No significant indirect effects were found in adolescents. In adult athletes, diet mediated the relationship between chronotype and sleep quality (β = -0.028, p < 0.001). Sleep quality mediated the association between diet and anxiety (β = -0.060, p = 0.001), and depression (β = -0.076, p = 0.001). Additionally, diet and sleep quality mediated the association between chronotypes and anxiety (β = -0.028, p = 0.001), and depression (β = -0.028, p = 0.001). Sleep quality mediated the relationship between dietary patterns and internalising symptoms in young adult athletes. Additionally, diet and sleep quality mediated the association between chronotypes and internalising symptoms in young adult athletes.

    Keywords: Diet, Sleep, Internalising symptoms, Athletes, Mediation

    Received: 01 Mar 2024; Accepted: 09 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Gao, Yang 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: Lei Wang, Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai, 200072, Shanghai Municipality, China

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