Night owls and early birds: The role of adolescents' chronotype on educational identity trajectories

Chronotype is the preference for sleep and activity timing, differentiating individuals into morning (i.e., waking and sleeping early), evening (i.e., preferring later sleep patterns) and intermediate (i.e., falling between these extremes) types. Adolescents' chronotype has been linked to school performance, but its connection to the development of their educational identity has been overlooked. A stable educational identity involves the interplay of three processes: commitment (i.e., identification with educational choices), in-depth exploration (i.e., exploring and reflecting on commitments) and reconsideration of commitment (i.e., questioning current commitments and seeking alternatives). This longitudinal study investigates whether adolescents' chronotypes can be associated with trajectories of educational identity processes and how the latter may mediate the link between adolescents' chronotypes and school performance. The study followed 1156 adolescents (Mage = 15.69, SDage = 1.20; 51.65% females) over four assessments spanning 1 year. Multigroup analyses showed that adolescents with an evening chronotype reported lower initial levels of educational commitment and in-depth exploration, coupled with higher reconsideration of commitment than adolescents with a morning chronotype. Additionally, a mediating effect of in-depth exploration was found in the link between chronotype and school performance. This study highlights the detrimental role of evening chronotype in educational identity development.