Work

Personality and Depressive Symptoms: Individual Participant Meta-analysis of 10 Cohort Studies

Year: 2015

Type: review

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Personality is suggested to be a major risk factor for depression but large-scale individual participant meta-analyses on this topic are lacking. METHOD: Data from 10 prospective community cohort studies with 117,899 participants (mean age 49.0 years; 54.7% women) were pooled for individual participant meta-analysis to determine the association between personality traits of the five-factor model and risk of depressive symptoms. RESULTS: In cross-sectional analysis, low extraversion (pooled standardized regression coefficient (B) = -.08; 95% confidence interval = -0.11, -0.04), high neuroticism (B = .39; 0.32, 0.45), and low conscientiousness (B = -.09; -0.10, -0.06) were associated with depressive symptoms. Similar associations were observed in longitudinal analyses adjusted for baseline depressive symptoms (n = 56,735; mean follow-up of 5.0 years): low extraversion (B = -.03; -0.05, -0.01), high neuroticism (B = .12; 0.10, 0.13), and low conscientiousness (B = -.04; -0.06, -0.02) were associated with an increased risk of depressive symptoms at follow-up. In turn, depressive symptoms were associated with personality change in extraversion (B = -.07; 95% CI = -0.12, -0.02), neuroticism (B = .23; 0.09, 0.36), agreeableness (B = -.09; -0.15, -0.04), conscientiousness (B = -.14; -0.21, -0.07), and openness to experience (B = -.04; -0.08, 0.00). CONCLUSIONS: Personality traits are prospectively associated with the development of depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms, in turn, are associated with changes in personality that may be temporary or persistent.

Source: Depression and Anxiety

DOI: 10.1002/da.22376

Authors: Christian Hakulinen, Marko Elovainio, Laura Pulkki-Råback, Marianna Virtanen, Mika Kivimäki, Markus Jokela

Institutions: University of Helsinki, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, University College London

Language: English

Topic: Personality Traits and Psychology

Subfield: Clinical Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green