The influence of the Big Five personality factors on mental health before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: A prospective study
van der Velden,P.G. Wittmann,Lutz Contino,Carlo van der Meulen,Erik Das,Marcel Adriaens,H.P.J.M.
van der Velden,P.G.
Wittmann,Lutz
Contino,Carlo
van der Meulen,Erik
Das,Marcel
Adriaens,H.P.J.M.
Abstract
The Big Five personality factors (PF) are considered to be predictive of mental health problems, but it is unclear if these factors equally contributed to mental health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to before the pandemic. This prospective study aimed to fill this knowledge gap. For this purpose data was extracted from the population-based LISS-panel. We included adult respondents (N^males = 1,838, N^females = 1892) who participated in three surveys before the pandemic (T1^March-2019, T2^May-2019, T3^November-2019) and in three surveys during the pandemic in 2020 (T4^March-2020, T5^May-2020, T6^november-2020). Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to examine and compare the longitudinal associations between PF at T2^May-2019 and moderate-severe anxiety and depressions symptoms (ADS) at T3^November-2019, and longitudinal associations between PF at T5^May-2020 and ADS at T5^November-2020 among males and females. Control variables (pre-existing ADS, lack support, demographics) were retrieved from the T1^March-2019 and T4^March-2020 surveys, respectively. For the present study we distinguished five levels (very high to very low) of each PF. For both sexes, those with (very) low emotional stability and/or conscientiousness had considerably higher rates of ADS compared to those with very high levels of the same trait. These findings were similar both before and during the pandemic. Moreover, we found no indications that those with a certain level of a PF during the pandemic were more of less at risk for ADS or persistent ADS, than those with the same level of the same PF before the pandemic. Thus, we found no indications that the pandemic affected the impact of personality factors on moderate-severe anxiety and depressions symptoms.
Description
Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2024.
Date
2024-11
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Keywords
Big five personality factors, COVID-19, anxiety, depression, gender
Citation
van der Velden, P G, Wittmann, L, Contino, C, van der Meulen, E, Das, M & Adriaens, H P J M 2024, 'The influence of the Big Five personality factors on mental health before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: A prospective study', Psychological Reports, pp. 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1177/00332941241300949
License
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess