The relationship between resilience and personality traits in doctors: implications for enhancing well being
Open accessAbstract
Objective. The health and well being of medical doctors is vital to their longevity and safe practice. The concept of resilience is recognised as a key component of well being and is an important factor in medical training to help doctors learn to cope with challenge, stress, and adversity. This study examined the relationship of resilience to personality traits and resilience in doctors in order to identify the key traits that promote or impair resilience. Methods. A cross sectional cohort of 479 family practitioners in practice across Australia was studied. The Temperament and Character Inventory measured levels of the seven basic dimensions of personality and the Resilience Scale provided an overall measure of resilience. The associations between resilience and personality were examined by Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients, controlling for age and gender (α = 0.05 with an accompanying 95% confidence level) and multiple regression analyses. Results. Strong to medium positive correlations were found between Resilience and Self-directedness (r = .614, p < .01), Persistence (r = .498, p < .01), and Cooperativeness (r = .363, p < .01) and negative with Harm Avoidance (r = .-555, p < .01). Individual differences in personality explained 39% of the variance in resilience [F(7, 460) = 38.40, p < .001]. The three traits which contributed significantly to this variance were Self-directedness (β = .33, p < .001), Persistence (β = .22, p < .001) and Harm Avoidance (β = .19, p < .001). Conclusion. Resilience was associated with a personality trait pattern that is mature, responsible, optimistic, persevering, and cooperative. Findings support the inclusion of resilience as a component of optimal functioning and well being in doctors. Strategies for enhancing resilience should consider the key traits that drive or impair it.
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Past research has shown that the most influential TCI scales on self-reported resilience were harm avoidance (negatively correlated) and self-directedness (positively correlated).
“As past research has shown that the most influential TCI scales on self-reported resilience were harm avoidance (HA, negatively correlated to resilience) and self-directedness (SD, positively correlated to resilience) [54,55,56]”
From Positive Impact of Mindfulness Meditation on Mental Health of Female Teachers during the COVID-19 Outbreak in Italy (2020) · cites this paper as [55]
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- Authors
- Eley, D. S., Cloninger, C. R., Walters, L., Laurence, C., Synnott, R., & Wilkinson, D.
- Affiliations
- The University of Queensland (AU)
- Washington University in St. Louis (US)
- Flinders University (AU)
- The University of Adelaide (AU)
- Macquarie University (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Eley, Diann S.
- Venue
- PeerJ
- Publisher
- PeerJ
- Published
- 2013-11-19
- Volume
- 1
- Pages
- e216
- ISSN
- 2167-8359 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3840414
- OpenAlex
- W2137296561
- Cited by
- 230
- References
- 66
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 24 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 28 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 27 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 23.55
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- PeerJ (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Digital Commons@Becker (Washington University School of Medicine) (submittedVersion)
- Adelaide Research & Scholarship (AR&S) (University of Adelaide) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Resilience and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Stress and Burnout Research
- Keywords
- resilience, personality traits, physicians, family practitioners, well-being, self-direction, persistence, harm avoidance, Temperament and Character Inventory, Resilience Scale, stress coping
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