The Impact of Personality on College Student Connectedness, Course Satisfaction, and Mental Well-Being

Abstract

The adaptability of college students during the academic paradigm shift caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is important to investigate in order to understand how we can encourage positive and healthy experiences for students. This study focused on analyzing the relationships between personality traits (extroversion, openness to experience, shyness) and college connectedness, course satisfaction, mental well-being, and desire to be more connected to college. Participants included 209 randomly selected students aged 18 years or older recruited from a community college in the Midwest. Participants completed a 150-item self-report survey in March 2022 that assessed the variables using standardized measures. As expected, correlational analyses found that extraversion had a significant positive relationship with college connectedness and mental well-being. However, we did not find significant relationships between extraversion and course satisfaction or desire to be more connected. Consistent with our hypothesis, openness had a significant positive correlation with each of the variables but was assessed cautiously due to a low alpha level. As expected, shyness had a significant negative correlation with college connectedness, course satisfaction, and mental well-being-being, but not with desire to be more connected. In studying personality as a static trait, we can better understand that extraverted, open, and shy individuals tend to maintain levels of college connectedness, satisfaction, and mental well-being even when unexpected turmoil (e.g., a pandemic) occurs. Future research can investigate how educators can adjust the culture of their courses to accommodate personality variation among students and develop personality-specific ways to strengthen the adaptability of college students.