Factors affecting adult trait Neuroticism in a nationally representative sample

Beliefs about personal change

In all, 510 Europeans completed an online questionnaire rating their beliefs about personal change, including the established Dweck Mindset measure. Their ratings of 27 characteristics from BMI to sexual preference factored into 5 interpretable factors labelled Personality, Beliefs and Habits, Health, Social Status and Physical. Correlation indicated beliefs about change were most related to religious beliefs but also sex and age. Dweck ratings of ability and personality growth were logically related to beliefs about change on the five factors and also to religious beliefs and self-rated optimism. Regressions indicated that being religious was the most consistent predictor about change, as well as age and education. Many beliefs about change were in direct contraction to the academic literature on the topic. Implications and limitations are acknowledged.

IQ in Adolescence and Cognition over 50 years later: The Mediating Role of Adult Personality

There is substantial evidence for the association between higher early life IQ and better cognition in late life. To advance knowledge on potential pathways, the present study tested whether Five-Factor Model personality traits in adulthood mediate the association between adolescent IQ and later-life cognition. Participants were from the Graduate sample of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study on Aging (WLS; N= 3,585). IQ was assessed in 1957 (about age 17), personality was assessed in 2003-2005 (age = 64), and cognition was assessed in 2011 (age = 71). Controlling for demographic factors, higher IQ in adolescence was related to higher openness, lower neuroticism, lower extraversion, lower agreeableness and lower conscientiousness in adulthood. Higher openness partially mediated the association between higher IQ and better cognition. Additional analyses indicated that the pattern of associations between IQ, personality and cognition was similar when the polygenic score for cognition was included as an additional covariate. Although effect size were small, this study provides new evidence that openness in adulthood is on the pathway between early life IQ and later-life cognition.

Early Predictors of Alpha and Beta Personality Factors in Adulthood

Abstract. This study examined the predictors of two higher factors of personality (Alpha and Beta) using a large nationally representative sample. In total, we had 5,476 participants data on family social status measured at birth, childhood intelligence ability assessed at age 11 years, behavioral problems and leisure activities (sports and parties) at age 16 years, psychological distress at age 23 years, optimism and educational qualifications at age 33 years, occupational prestige at age 42 years, and Big Five personality measured at age 50 years. We combined Big Five scores into Alpha and Beta factors. Correlational analysis showed that childhood intelligence, teenager behavioral problems and leisure activities, psychological distress, optimism, educational qualifications, and occupational prestige were all significant correlates of the Alpha and Beta factors. Structural equation modeling (SEM) showed that childhood intelligence, teenage behavioral problems, education and occupation as well as optimism were the direct predictors of the latent Alpha factor; and that childhood intelligence, education and occupation, psychological distress, and optimism were the direct predictors of the latent Beta factor. Gender was significantly associated with both Alpha and Beta factors. Implications and limitations are acknowledged.

Personality, lifestyle and job satisfaction: causal association between neuroticism and job satisfaction using Mendelian randomisation in the UK biobank cohort

Job-related stress has been associated with poor health outcomes but little is known about the causal nature of these findings. We employed Mendelian randomisation (MR) approach to investigate the causal effect of neuroticism, education, and physical activity on job satisfaction. Trait-specific genetic risk score (GRS) based on recent genome wide association studies were used as instrumental variables (IV) using the UK Biobank cohort (N = 315,536). Both single variable and multivariable MR analyses were used to determine the effect of each trait on job satisfaction. We observed a clear evidence of a causal association between neuroticism and job satisfaction. In single variable MR, one standard deviation (1 SD) higher genetically determined neuroticism score (4.07 units) was associated with -0.31 units lower job satisfaction (95% confidence interval (CI): -0.38 to -0.24; P = 9.5 × 10^-20). The causal associations remained significant after performing sensitivity analyses by excluding invalid genetic variants from GRS_Neuroticism (β(95%CI): -0.28(-0.35 to -0.21); P = 3.4 x 10^-15). Education (0.02; -0.08 to 0.12; 0.67) and physical activity (0.08; -0.34 to 0.50; 0.70) did not show any evidence for causal association with job satisfaction. When genetic instruments for neuroticism, education and physical activity were included together, the association of neuroticism score with job satisfaction was reduced by only -0.01 units, suggesting an independent inverse causal association between neuroticism score (P = 2.7 x 10^-17) and job satisfaction. Our findings show an independent causal association between neuroticism score and job satisfaction. Physically active lifestyle may help to increase job satisfaction despite presence of high neuroticism scores. Our study highlights the importance of considering the confounding effect of negative personality traits for studies on job satisfaction.

GHQ score changes from teenage to young adulthood

This study investigated the change in the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) scores from teenage years to young adulthood using a large, nationally representative sample in the UK. It took account of socio-demographic variables, childhood intelligence, behavioural problems and self-esteem at teenage and educational qualifications in early adulthood. In total, 3942 cohort members had the complete data on GHQ at ages 16 and 30 years. T-tests showed that there was statistically significant increase of GHQ mean scores over the 14 years (p < .001), however at the item level there were changes in both directions. The analysis showed that over 14 years the test-retest correlation was r = 0.24, indicating a modest level of stability. The GHQ was significantly and negatively associated with self-esteem, and positively associated with childhood behavioural problems. Regression analysis showed that gender, self-esteem, and behavioural problems measured in the teenage years were all significant predictors of GHQ at both time points, indicating the long-term effects of psychological and behavioural factors on teenagers and young adults' mental health outcome. The implications for early interventions in school and family settings are discussed.