Personality, Perceived Occupational Stressor, and Health-Related Quality of Life Among Chinese Judges

Abstract

Personality is hypothesized to have direct and indirect effects on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) through the mediating role of perceived occupational stressors. This hypothesized model was tested with Chinese judges, individuals characterized by high occupational stress. In this cross-sectional study, 330 judges undergoing professional training at the Shandong Judge Training Institute completed questionnaires assessing their personality (Big Five Inventory, BFI), perceived occupational stressors (Occupational Role Questionnaire, ORQ), and HRQoL (Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form Health Survey, SF-36). The proposed model was tested using structural equation modelling (SEM) approaches. The SEM analysis showed a good fit of the data to the hypothesized model(x 2/df = 1.52, P < 0.001, RMSEA = 0.04, GFI = 0.87, CFI = 0.91, TLI = 0.89). The model explained 60 % of the variance in HRQoL. A strong negative direct effect of neuroticism on HRQoL (−0.50, P < 0.01) was observed. Neuroticism also had a negative indirect effect (−0.18, P < 0.01) on HRQoL by positively influencing (β = 0.47, P < 0.01) perceived occupational stressors which had significantly negative direct effects (β = −0.39, P < 0.01) on HRQoL. However, both the direct effects of openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness and extraversion on HRQoL and their indirect effects mediated by perceived occupational stressor were not significant. In conclusion, our hypotheses were partly supported by the data. We found that neuroticism had both direct effect on HRQoL and an indirect effect through the mediating role of perceived occupational stressors which also had a significant effect on HRQoL, whereas neither the direct nor the indirect effects of openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness and extraversion on HRQoL of Chinese judges had been found in current study.