Explaining the Relationship Between Personality and Health in a National Sample of African Americans: The Mediating Role of Social Support

Abstract

Though associations between personality and health have been previously observed, less is known about why such relationships exist. The present study examines whether social support mediated the relationship between personality traits and health among African Americans. We hypothesized that social support would help explain the relationship between each of the five-factor model traits and physical functioning. Data were collected from a national probability sample of 803 African American adults using a telephone survey including measures of the five-factor model personality traits, social support, and physical functioning. Results of mediational analyses suggested that higher openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness, and lower neuroticism predicted higher social support. Higher openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and lower neuroticism, but not agreeableness, predicted higher physical functioning. The relationships between physical functioning and personality traits were at least partially mediated by social support. This study reinforces the importance of identifying the mechanisms underlying the personality-health relationship. This information may be useful to community members and health care providers in developing prevention and treatment strategies for African Americans.

A Longitudinal Examination of Social Support as a Mediator of the Personality-Health Relationship in a National Sample of African Americans

“…In the first cross-sectional study of African American adults, higher neuroticism was related to poorer self-rated general health and cardiovascular health, higher extraversion was related to better self-rated general and cardiovascular health, while higher agreeableness and conscientiousness were related to better self-reported general health (Aiken-Morgan et al, 2014). In the second cross-sectional study, which utilized the same African American sample as the current study, higher openness to experience, higher conscientiousness, higher extraversion, and lower neuroticism were related to better self-reported physical functioning (Clark et al, 2019). Unlike the Aiken-Morgan et al (2014) study, agreeableness was not associated with physical functioning in the Clark et al (2019) study.…”

“…In the second cross-sectional study, which utilized the same African American sample as the current study, higher openness to experience, higher conscientiousness, higher extraversion, and lower neuroticism were related to better self-reported physical functioning (Clark et al, 2019). Unlike the Aiken-Morgan et al (2014) study, agreeableness was not associated with physical functioning in the Clark et al (2019) study.…”

“…A considerable amount of prior research (e.g., Cohen et al, 2012; Smith, 2006; Strickhouser et al, 2017) has documented a relationship between personality traits and health. However, only two studies (Aiken-Morgan et al, 2014; Clark et al, 2019) have examined these relationships among African Americans and neither utilized a longitudinal design. In the first cross-sectional study of African American adults, higher neuroticism was related to poorer self-rated general health and cardiovascular health, higher extraversion was related to better self-rated general and cardiovascular health, while higher agreeableness and conscientiousness were related to better self-reported general health (Aiken-Morgan et al, 2014).…”

“…The personality-social support connection is relatively well documented, but none of this research has focused on an African American population using a longitudinal design. A cross-sectional study examining an African American sample found that higher openness to experience, higher conscientiousness, higher extraversion, higher agreeableness, and lower neuroticism were related to higher perceived social support (Clark et al, 2019). Even though this study utilized the same sample as the current study, it did not examine these variables longitudinally.…”

“…There is some evidence that social support mediates the relationship between personality and health, but it is not known if these relationships persist over time in African Americans. Some studies have found evidence that social support mediated the personality-health connection (Clark et al, 2019; Connell & D’Augelli, 1990; Shen et al, 2004; Staniute et al, 2015), but only one of these examined included an African American sample. Clark et al (2019) found that relationships between the five-factor model personality traits and physical functioning were at least partially mediated by social support in a cross-sectional analysis of the African American dataset used in the current study.…”