A longitudinal study of personality traits, anxiety, and depressive disorders in young adults
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: How personality traits, anxiety, and depressive disorders relate longitudinally has implications for etiologic research and prevention. We sought to determine how neuroticism and extraversion relate to first-onset anxiety and depressive disorders in young adults. DESIGN: An inception cohort of 489 university freshmen was followed for 6 years. METHOD: Participants self-reported personality traits using the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. Anxiety and depressive disorders were assessed using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule. RESULTS: Baseline neuroticism predicted first-onset panic disorder, agoraphobia, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and major depressive disorder (MDD), while introversion predicted first-onset agoraphobia (moderate-large effects). Participants who developed panic disorder, agoraphobia, GAD, or MDD had increases in neuroticism if the disorder was current at follow-up (moderate-large effects). Participants who developed MDD but were in remission by follow-up had a moderate increase in neuroticism. CONCLUSIONS: High neuroticism in young adulthood is either a true risk factor, or marker of risk, for first-onset anxiety and depressive disorders, as is low extraversion for agoraphobia. The current data suggest large neuroticism "state" effects for panic disorder, agoraphobia, and MDD, and moderate "scar" effects from MDD. Though many clinicians and researchers regard personality traits simply as "vulnerability" factors, longitudinal analyses suggest additional complexity.
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Genetic factors, the personality of the individual, and stressful life events could cause anxiety.
“In terms of the causes of anxiety both genetic (Meier et al., 2019), the personality of the individual (Prince et al., 2021) as well as stressful life events could cause anxiety (Miloyan et al., 2018).”
From A Systematic Review of “Helicopter Parenting” and Its Relationship With Anxiety and Depression (2022) · cites this paper as Prince et al., 2021
The Prince et al. citation attaches to the personality portion of the sentence, not to genetic factors or stressful life events. The Discussion reports that higher neuroticism predicted first-onset anxiety disorders in young adults, but the Conclusions say it could be either a true risk factor or a marker of risk. The source therefore supports an association with specific personality traits, not an established causal role for personality generally. (LLM, conf=0.84)
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- Authors
- Prince, E. J., Siegel, D. J., Carroll, C. P., Sher, K. J., & Bienvenu, O. J.
- Affiliations
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA
- University of Missouri (US)
- Corresponding author
- Prince, Elizabeth J.
- Venue
- Anxiety, Stress, & Coping
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2020-11-15
- Volume
- 34
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 299-307
- ISSN
- 1061-5806 (ISSN-L)
- 1477-2205
- PMC
- PMC8068574
- OpenAlex
- W3106096360
- Cited by
- 42
- References
- 28
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 2
- FWCI
- 3.63
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Anxiety Stress & Coping (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Health (K23MH64543, K05 AA017242, R37AA7231)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Disorders and Psychopathology
- Keywords
- personality traits, neuroticism, extraversion, introversion, anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, panic disorder, agoraphobia, generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, young adults, university students, risk factors, remission, state effects
- MeSH terms
- Neuroticism, Adolescent, Adult, Agoraphobia, Anxiety Disorders, Depressive Disorder, Extraversion, Psychological, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Personality, Personality Inventory, Cohort Studies, Young Adult
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