The Bidirectional Relationship Between Sleep Quality and Aggressive Behavior: Within-Person Mediated Effect of Self-Control.

The correlation between sleep quality, self-control, and aggressive behavior has been assessed in previous empirical studies. However, the interrelationship and underlying mechanisms of sleep alterations and aggressive behavior among adolescents at the within-person level, particularly within the context of Chinese culture, have rarely been investigated. Using a random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM), this longitudinal study aims to (i) distinguish between-person and within-person effects when examining the interplay between sleep quality and aggressive behavior among adolescents and (ii) assess the potential mediating role of self-control in this relationship. The present sample consisted of 1240 Chinese adolescents, including 614 girls, with a mean age of 12.72 years (SD = 0.68) at baseline. Data were collected across four waves over 2 years, with an interval of 6 months between consecutive time points. The RI-CLPM results indicated that sleep quality directly predicted aggressive behavior at the within-person level and vice versa, demonstrating a bidirectional predictive relationship between the two constructs. Moreover, self-control mediated the prediction of aggressive behavior by sleep quality, but not the reverse. These findings underscore a reciprocal influence between sleep quality and aggressive behavior among Chinese youth, confirming that low levels of self-control significantly mediate the effect of sleep quality on aggression.