Are sleep quality problems linked to pride in Tai Chi practitioners? Regulatory emotional self-efficacy and years of...

Sleep quality is a central indicator of sleep health and is closely linked to emotional functioning. However, research has focused largely on negative affect, psychopathology, and impaired daytime functioning, leaving less known about whether sleep quality problems are associated with positive self-evaluative emotions. In the real-world context of Tai Chi practice, this study examined whether regulatory emotional self-efficacy (RESE) statistically accounted for the associations between sleep quality problems and authentic and hubristic pride among a predominantly young sample of Chinese Tai Chi practitioners, and whether years of Tai Chi practice moderated the association between sleep quality problems and RESE.

A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 477 Chinese Tai Chi practitioners with regular and sustained practice experience, most of whom were young adults. Participants completed self-report measures, including the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the RESE, and the Authentic and Hubristic Pride Scales (AHPS), and reported their years of Tai Chi practice experience. Mediation and moderated mediation analyses were conducted using PROCESS Models 4 and 7, controlling for gender and age.

Sleep quality problems were indirectly associated with lower authentic pride through lower RESE. The corresponding indirect association was not statistically significant for hubristic pride. Tai Chi experience moderated the first-stage association between sleep quality problems and RESE: the negative association was stronger among participants with longer Tai Chi experience, and the conditional indirect association with authentic pride was statistically significant at median and higher levels of experience.

In this cross-sectional sample, lower perceived emotion-regulation capacity statistically accounted for part of the association between sleep quality problems and lower authentic pride. The corresponding indirect association was not statistically significant for hubristic pride. Tai Chi experience conditioned the association between sleep quality problems and RESE, but its direction was not consistent with a buffering interpretation.