Fear of missing out and adolescent sleep quality: A moderated mediation model

Background: Fear of missing out (FoMO) has been associated with poorer sleep among adolescents, but the psychological processes underlying this association remain unclear. Objective: This study examined whether FoMO was indirectly associated with poorer sleep quality through emotion regulation difficulties and whether regulatory emotional self-efficacy (RESE) moderated this indirect association. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 412 seventh- and eighth-grade students from one junior middle school in Wuhan, China. Participants completed measures of FoMO, emotion regulation difficulties, RESE, and sleep quality. PROCESS Models 4 and 7 were used to test mediation and first-stage moderated mediation, controlling for gender and grade. Results: Higher FoMO was associated with greater emotion regulation difficulties and poorer sleep quality. The standardized indirect association estimate for the pathway from FoMO to poorer sleep quality through emotion regulation difficulties was 0.15 (95% bootstrap confidence interval [CI] [0.09, 0.21]). RESE moderated the association between FoMO and emotion regulation difficulties (β = −0.12, p = 0.005), with the association becoming weaker at higher RESE levels. The index of moderated mediation was −0.036 (95% bootstrap CI [−0.065, −0.012]). Conclusion: Emotion regulation difficulties may help explain the association between FoMO and poorer sleep quality among adolescents, whereas RESE may serve as a potential protective resource by weakening the association between FoMO and emotion regulation difficulties.