Can your personality predict stress throughout your life?

Personality traits such as neuroticism and introversion are major factors in depression throughout life, according to research published in Journal of Affective Disorders.

Depression remains one of the leading causes of disability worldwide. Although depression is often characterized by a series of symptoms that vary greatly among individuals, one consistent factor appears to be a set of personality traits. Previous studies have found that certain personality traits, such as high neuroticism and low conscientiousness, are associated with an increased risk of depression and anxiety. However, many studies have focused only on one personality at a time or have not considered the possible changes in these relationships at different stages of life.

Zhen Yang and colleagues sought to build on this work by examining relationships between personality traits and depressive and anxiety symptoms across the lifespan.

The researchers used data from the Nathan Kline Institute Rockland Sample (NKI-RS), which is a large population center that includes people of various ages, from teenagers to adults. The final sample included 1,494 participants aged 12 to 85. Participants were divided into four groups: those with depression only, those with only anxiety, people with with depression and anxiety, and a healthy control group without any psychiatric conditions.

Psychiatric assessments for participants were determined using structured clinical interviews: the Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (K-SADS) for participants aged 6 to 17 and the Structured Clinical Interview for of DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I/NP) for those aged 18 to 85.

The study assessed personality traits using the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI), which assesses five major personality dimensions: neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. The researchers also collected a number of psychological and physical measures, including cognitive tasks, questions about eating behavior, and physical examinations such as measuring heart rate and body mass index (BMI). ).

People with depression or anxiety have been found to have higher levels of neuroticism and lower levels of extraversion compared to healthy controls. This trend was more pronounced in people with depression and anxiety, who showed a more vulnerable personality type characterized by high neuroticism and high introversion. During adolescence, depression was associated with higher neuroticism and lower levels of extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Conversely, anxiety during adolescence was associated with higher neuroticism and conscientiousness.

In adulthood, the relationship between personality traits and mental health symptoms appeared to change. Depression was no longer significantly associated with any personality traits after controlling for anxiety, suggesting that other factors, such as life stress or biological changes, are may play a prominent role in triggering depression in adults.

However, anxiety remained significantly associated with neuroticism and negatively associated with extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness, indicating that naive, unaccepting, and conscientious individuals are I had anxiety symptoms when they were older.

In adulthood, depression continued to show no significant association with personality traits, while anxiety was associated with neuroticism and, particularly in this age group, with agree with the freedom to experience.

The machine learning method achieved an accuracy of 70% for depression, with neuroticism and introversion emerging as the most important factors for depression. It also highlighted that higher BMI, reduced heart rate variability during exercise, and certain eating habits, such as increased restraint and feelings of hunger, were also important factors that contribute to the likelihood of depression. These findings suggest that a combination of personality traits, physical health indicators, and lifestyle factors can predict the risk of depression.

What is important is that the cross-sectional design of the study reduces the ability to draw conclusions about the relationship between personality traits and depression.

The study, “Personality characteristics as predictors of depression across the lifespan”, was written by Zhen Yang, Allison Li, Chloe Roske, Nolan Alexander, and Vilma Gabbay.