Rural–urban differences in personality traits and well‐being in adulthood

Abstract

ObjectiveOne large focus of personality psychology is to understand the biopsychosocial factors responsible for adult personality development and well‐being change. However, little is known about how macro‐level contextual factors, such as rurality–urbanicity, are related to personality development and well‐being change.MethodThe present study uses data from two large longitudinal studies of U.S. Americans (MIDUS, HRS) to examine whether there are rural–urban differences in levels and changes in the Big Five personality traits and well‐being (i.e., psychological well‐being, and life satisfaction) in adulthood.ResultsMultilevel models showed that Americans who lived in more rural areas tended to have lower levels of openness, conscientiousness, and psychological well‐being, and higher levels of neuroticism. With the exception of psychological well‐being (which replicated across MIDUS and HRS), rural–urban differences in personality traits were only evident in the HRS sample. The effect of neuroticism was fully robust to the inclusion of socio‐demographic and social network covariates, but other effects were partially robust (i.e., conscientiousness and openness) or were not robust at all (i.e., psychological well‐being). In both samples, there were no rural–urban differences in Big Five or well‐being change.ConclusionsWe discuss the implications of these findings for personality and rural health research.

Are there place-based disparities in mortality risk? Findings from two longitudinal studies.

“…Household income was comprised of the sum (in U.S. dollars) of participants' and their spouses' self-reported earnings, pensions and annuities, social security, unemployment and 2 Originally, the preregistration stated the 9-RUCC would be the primary operationalization, and the 3-RUCC would be the sensitivity analysis operationalization. However, 3-RUCC variable was used as the primary operationalization because: (a) conceptually, U.S. Americans think about their geographical residence as either rural, suburban, or urban (Bucholtz et al, 2020;Short Gianotti et al, 2016); (b) prior work has established the convergent validity of operationalizing "rural" as RUCCs 7-9 (J. C. Long et al, 2021;Streeter et al, 2020) and the predictive validity of 3-RUCC for various health outcomes (Atherton et al, 2023;Joseph et al, 2015;Segel & Lengerich, 2020;Wang et al, 2013;Zuniga & Lango, 2018); (c) conceptually and statistically, a 9-category RUCC analyzed as a "continuous" variable has untenable assumptions including that each of the nine scale points are equally distanced and conceptually different from one another; and (d) statistically, using 9-category RUCC as a categorical (or continuous) variable poses methodological problems due to the skewed/non-normal distribution and the small sample sizes at the rural end of the scale, as noted by a biostatistician who consulted on the analytic approach (see Figure S1-S2); 3-RUCC has higher statistical power for the present analyses. ATHERTON 4 workers' compensation, other government transfers, household capital income, and other income in the last calendar year.…”

“…Likewise, most prior investigations either examine dichotomized rural-urban continuum codes or a continuous measure ranging from 1 to 9, whereas the present study operationalizes as 3-RUCC. Prior work demonstrates that quantifying "rural" as RUCCs 7-9 has convergent validity with other definitions of rural (J. C. Long et al, 2021;Streeter et al, 2020) and the 3-RUCC operationalization has predictive validity for various health outcomes (Atherton et al, 2023;Joseph et al, 2015;J. C. Long et al, 2021;Segel & Lengerich, 2020;Wang et al, 2013;Zuniga & Lango, 2018).…”

Explicating narrow and broad conceptualizations of environmental influences on personality

“…Such an ambitious project-while being attentive to levels of abstraction and appropriately modeling measurement error-can provide the field with guidance on the sources of variance in the characteristics we study and set reasonable expectations for which characteristics are most malleable to environmental changes and interventions. Atherton et al (2023; this issue) examined in two U.S. middle-aged and older adult samples (i.e., HRS, MIDUS) how living in urban vs. rural regions is linked to levels and changes in Big Five traits and well-being (i.e., psychological well-being and life satisfaction). The authors found that living in rural areas was linked to lower openness, conscientiousness, and psychological well-being as well as higher levels of neuroticism.…”

“…Atherton et al (2023; this issue) examined in two U.S. middle‐aged and older adult samples (i.e., HRS, MIDUS) how living in urban vs. rural regions is linked to levels and changes in Big Five traits and well‐being (i.e., psychological well‐being and life satisfaction). The authors found that living in rural areas was linked to lower openness, conscientiousness, and psychological well‐being as well as higher levels of neuroticism.…”

“…This special issue highlights that the call to go beyond traits is still relevant. However, we want to point to the few articles in our special issue that went beyond traits (e.g., Atherton et al, 2023; Du et al, 2023; Kandler et al, 2023; Kirchner‐Häusler et al, 2023). These included personality constructs such as values, well‐being, goals, interests, religiousness, and self‐schemas.…”