Factors related to the awakening mood for seventh-grade students in rural Japan

Objective: Children's mood when they wake up is closely related to their physical and social issues. The purpose of this study is to clarify the factors for negative feeling on awakening among seventh grade in a rural area in Japan. Design: A cross-sectional study among seventh grade students in rural Japan. Methods: Between 2012 and 2014, 588 seventh-grade students (boys: 299, girls: 289) in rural Japan were recruited as subjects. Of them, 504 with eligible responses (boys: 252, girls: 252) were finally included in the study (response rate 85.7%). A questionnaire survey concerning mood upon awakening, sleep, and psychosocial factors was conducted. Both the physical examination findings and blood test results of students were also included in the data. Chi-squared tests, the student t-tests, and logistic regression analysis were used to analyze children's mood at awakening in this study. Results: Among boys, the group with a negative awakening mood woke up later and ate breakfast less often than the group with a positive awakening mood; the differences were statistically significant. Among girls, subjects in the group with a negative awakening mood went to bed later, had a shorter sleeping time, and ate breakfast less frequently than those in the group with a positive awakening mood; these differences were also statistically significant. With regard to psychosocial factors, those with a negative awakening mood showed more affection for both themselves and their friends, acknowledging individuals' positive attributes more than those with a positive awakening mood in both genders, and those showing more affection for their family among boys. We found that girls with negative awakening moods tended to have more difficulties in getting along with friends, but there were no significant relationship between negative awakening moods and other variables among boys. Conclusions: Our results suggest that improving awakening mood may lead to healthy friendships among seventh grade students in rural Japan.