Modelling the contribution of the Big Five personality traits, health anxiety, and COVID-19 psychological distress to generalised anxiety and depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic
Open accessAbstract
In the current study we sought to extend our understanding of vulnerability and protective factors (the Big Five personality traits, health anxiety, and COVID-19 psychological distress) in predicting generalised anxiety and depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants (n = 502), who were United States residents, completed a variety of sociodemographic questions and the following questionnaires: Big Five Inventory-10 (BFI-10), Whitley Index 7 (WI-7), Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS), COVID-19 Anxiety Syndrome Scale (C19-ASS), and Patient Health Questionnaire Anxiety and Depression Scale (PHQ-ADS). Results showed that extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness were negatively correlated with generalised anxiety and depressive symptoms and that neuroticism, health anxiety and both measures of COVID-19 psychological distress were positively correlated with generalised anxiety and depressive symptoms. We used path analysis to determine the pattern of relationships specified by the theoretical model we proposed. Results showed that health anxiety, COVID-19 anxiety, and the COVID-19 anxiety syndrome partially mediated the relationship between the Big Five personality traits and generalised anxiety and depressive symptoms. Specifically, extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness were negatively associated with the three mediators, which, in turn, were positively associated with generalised anxiety and depressive symptoms, with COVID-19 anxiety showing the strongest effect. Conversely, neuroticism and openness were positively associated with COVID-19 anxiety and the COVID-19 anxiety syndrome, respectively. These relationships were independent of age, gender, employment status and risk status. The model accounted for a substantial variance of generalised anxiety and depression symptoms (R 2 = .75). The implications of these findings are discussed.
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This result is in line with other findings with adolescents and adults.
“This result is in line with other findings with adolescents (Breaux et al., 2021) and adults (Flesia et al., 2020; Nikčević et al., 2021; Schmiedeberg & Thönnissen, 2021).”
From Adolescent Loneliness and Negative Affect during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Extraversion and Neuroticism (2023) · cites this paper as Nikčević et al., 2021
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“Perhaps, extraversion may function as a protective factor (Nikčević et al., 2021) beyond the first weeks of the pandemic, because measures of social contact restrictions were increasingly relaxed and alternative strategies for making social contact were found.”
BackgroundResult
- Authors
- Nikčević, A. V., Marino, C., Kolubinski, D. C., Leach, D., & Spada, M. M.
- Affiliations
- Kingston University London (GB)
- University of Padua (IT)
- London South Bank University (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Spada, Marcantonio M.
- Venue
- Journal of Affective Disorders
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-01
- Volume
- 279
- Pages
- 578-584
- ISSN
- 0165-0327 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7598311
- OpenAlex
- W3094655095
- Cited by
- 344
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 19 · 2025: 24 · 2024: 54 · 2023: 68 · 2022: 101 · 2021: 75 · 2020: 2
- FWCI
- 24.62
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Affective Disorders (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Repository (Kingston University London) (acceptedVersion)
- Research Open (London South Bank University) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Padua Research Archive (University of Padova) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Keywords
- Big Five personality traits, health anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder, depressive symptoms, COVID-19 anxiety, neuroticism, openness to experience, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, mediation, COVID-19 pandemic
- MeSH terms
- Neuroticism, Psychological Distress, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Adult, Anxiety, Depression, Extraversion, Psychological, Female, Humans, Male, Personality, Personality Inventory, Surveys and Questionnaires, Pandemics
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