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

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 a total of 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)=-0.08; 95 % confidence interval=-0.11, -0.04), high neuroticism (B=0.39; 0.32, 0.45), and low conscientiousness (B=-0.09; -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=-0.03; -0.05, -0.01), high neuroticism (B=0.12; 0.10, 0.13), and low conscientiousness (B=-0.04; -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=-0.07; 95 % CI=-0.12, -0.02), neuroticism (B=0.23; 0.09, 0.36), agreeableness (B=-0.09; -0.15, -0.04), conscientiousness (B=-0.14; -0.21, -0.07), and openness to experience (B=-0.04; -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.

Maladaptive Personality Traits and 10-Year Course of Psychiatric and Medical Symptoms and Functional Impairment Following Trauma

“…As hypothesized, negative affectivity was associated with initial levels of PTSD symptoms and impaired mental functioning, but not to initial physical symptoms or functional impairment. Negative affectivity is akin to neuroticism by reflecting a tendency to experience negative emotions and poor coping, and the current results are in line with the previous research which identified neuroticism as a risk factor for psychiatric illness in general [10,12,28,32,61]. One mechanisms linking negative affectivity to worse PTSD and mental functioning could be heightened sensitivity to negative stimuli, such as biased processing of threat information [85][86][87][88].…”

“…Detachment showed an even more robust association with mental health outcomes as expected, and was also related to physical functioning. Akin to low extraversion, detachment is characterized by low engagement, enthusiasm and confidence, thus results are in line with previous evidence that low extraversion is a risk factor for psychiatric illness and functional impairment [10,12], possibly because it impacts social interactions, which are crucial protective factors in physical and mental health [89][90][91][92][93]. Finally, as hypothesized, psychoticism was associated with initial levels of PTSD.…”

Personality and Smoking: Individual-Participant Meta-Analysis of 9 Cohort Studies

“…Our findings imply that this could also be the case in interventions promoting smoking cessation. In addition, as neuroticism is related to depressive symptoms (40,41) and depression is highly co-morbid with smoking (42), personality-informed interventions to reduce smoking could also support those with depressive symptoms. Further research should also investigate whether the success in current smoking cessations programs vary depending on individuals personality dispositions.…”

Physical activity and personality development over twenty years: Evidence from three longitudinal samples

“…Such outcomes, in turn, may have a long-term impact on personality, such as reductions in the tendency to be self-disciplined and organized or to be exploratory and curious. Indeed, cognitive decline, greater frailty, and more depressive symptoms and disease burden have been associated with reduced conscientiousness and openness over time (Hakulinen et al, 2015; Mõttus, Johnson, Starr, & Deary, 2012; Stephan et al, 2017 ; Sutin et al, 2013; Wettstein et al, 2017). …”

“…Indeed, higher disease burden, biological dysfunction, depressive symptoms, and worsening cognition are related to higher neuroticism, and lower extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness over time (Hakulinen et al, 2015; Jokela, Hakulinen, Singh-Manoux, & Kivimaki, 2014; Stephan, Sutin, Luchetti, & Terracciano, 2016; Wettstein et al, 2017). Worsening functional status, such as higher frailty over time is also related to maladaptive personality changes (Stephan, Sutin, Canada, & Terracciano, 2017).…”