Chronotype and general health in police professionals: Resilience as a moderator and stress as a mediator

The study examined how chronotype relates to general health among police professionals and further explored whether resilience moderates these links and whether stress acts as a mediator. A total of 428 police professionals from different districts of Uttar Pradesh were sampled through purposive sampling. Standardized tools were used to assess all variables. The study used a cross-sectional quantitative correlational design. Pearson correlation and regression analyses were carried out in SPSS, whereas moderation and mediation were tested using JAMOVI and JASP. The findings showed that stress, depressed mood, and good sleep were strongly linked with general health. Hierarchical regression identified stress, good sleep, resilience and morningness as significant predictors. Moderation results indicated that resilience did not moderate the relationship between chronotype and its dimensions and general health rather remained as a strong predictor. Mediation results showed that stress significantly mediated the effects of good sleep and depressed mood on health, but morningness did not show an indirect effect. Overall, stress and depressed mood emerged as major risk factors for poor health, whereas resilience contributed positively to better outcome. Stress partly explained how good sleep and depressed mood influenced general health.