Abstract
Personality traits have been found to be related to a variety of health outcomes. The aim of this study was to examine how personality traits were associated with adjustment to the COVID pandemic in college students. The sample included 484 first-year university students (76% female) attending a northeastern university who completed the Big Five Inventory (BFI) personality assessment at the beginning of a semester that was disrupted by the COVID pandemic. Using a phone-based app, students completed daily ratings of mood, perceived stress levels, and engagement in a number of health promotion activities (exercise, mindfulness, adequate sleep, etc.) throughout the semester both before and after the onset of the pandemic (e.g., a within-person longitudinal design). Results, as expected, showed that mood and wellness indices generally declined during the COVID period, although stress levels actually decreased. Further, irrespective of COVID, improved mood, less perceived stress and greater participation in health promotion activities were significantly associated with a number of personality traits including neuroticism (lower), extraversion (higher), agreeableness (higher), and conscientiousness (higher). Of primary interest, mixed-effects models were used to test how major personality traits interacted with any changes in daily ratings from the pre-COVID to COVID period. Significant interactions terms were found suggesting differential impacts of the COVID epidemic for students with low versus high levels of particular traits. Higher levels of extraversion, for example, were found to be related to decreases in mood as the pandemic progressed in contrast to those with lower extraversion, for whom there was a slight increase in mood over time. These data support the conclusion that personality traits are related to mental health and can play a role in a person’s ability to cope with major stressful events. Different traits may also be more adaptive to different types of stressors.
Highlights
The COVID19 pandemic has had a major negative impact on mental health
Across the entire study period, all 5 major personality traits were found to be significantly related to mood and engagement in healthy activities (Table 2)
This study aimed to examine the link between major personality dimensions and change in mental health functioning through the COVID pandemic in a group of college students
Summary
The COVID19 pandemic has had a major negative impact on mental health. According to an April 2020 survey, more than a quarter of American adults meet criteria for “serious mental distress,” an eightfold increase since 2018 [3]. Data from the Healthline Mental Health Index indicates that up to 45% of US adults have elevated levels of depression and anxiety [4]. College students may be vulnerable to the mental health effects of the COVID pandemic given the magnitude of the stressor during a period characterized by still developing emotional regulatory networks in the brain [5, 6]. A recent study that surveyed students across 195 U.S colleges found that 71% of the sample reported increased anxiety due to the pandemic [7]
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