The associations between religiosity and the Big-Five personality traits in college students from Sudan

Research on the association between religiosity and personality with Arab participants is rare. The aim of the present study was to explore this association using a sample (N = 623) of college students from Sudan. They responded to the Arabic Scale of Intrinsic Religiosity and the Arabic Big-Five Personality Inventory. The results indicated that men obtained a significantly higher mean score than did women for extraversion, whereas women obtained higher mean total scores for religiosity and neuroticism than did men. For both genders, religiosity was significantly and positively associated with agreeableness and conscientiousness. In college men only, religiosity was significantly correlated with extraversion. A principal components analysis of the combined sample of men and women retained two components and labeled "Positive traits" and "Neuroticism and Introversion". Predictors of religiosity were Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. The model explains 42% of the variance. It was concluded that the associations observed in the Sudanese sample reflect the general pattern observed in other international samples.

Health-Related Quality of Life in pre-dialysis patients with chronic kidney disease: the role of Big-Five personality traits and illness denial

BACKGROUND

Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) is significantly affected, regardless of the stage of the disease, as regards the physical, psychological and social functioning dimension. Big-Five personality traits can affect patients' HRQoL and willingness to take treatment options. Illness denial consists of denial of negative emotions, resistance to change and conscious avoidance. Poorer HRQoL can predict a higher risk of hospitalization and mortality, and broadly a worse adjustment to the dialytic therapy. Thus, a clearer knowledge of the psychological variables associated with a worse HRQoL in the predialysis stage might improve the intervention planning. No study investigated illness denial and personality traits simultaneously. We investigated the role of illness denial and Big-Five personality traits in the domains of HRQoL in predialysis patients with CKD.

METHODS

One hundred adults (mean age: 75.87 years) with CKD participated. The Kidney Disease Quality of Life Short form, the Italian version of Ten Item Personality Inventory Revised, the Illness Denial Questionnaire, and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Form-Y were administered.

RESULTS

Illness denial was associated with increased HRQoL related to symptoms/problems, effect and burden of CKD and cognitive functions domains, and it was a predictor of higher HRQoL in the last three domains mentioned above. Extraversion was related to better work status and sexual function; agreeableness was linked to elevated cognitive function, quality of social interaction and sexual function; conscientiousness was related to better sexual function; neuroticism was linked to improved cognitive and sexual functions; in the end, openness to experience was related to fewer symptoms and problems.

CONCLUSIONS

This is the first study which simultaneously assessed Big-Five personality traits and illness denial in different domains of HRQoL of CKD patients. Personalised psychological interventions aimed at improving HRQoL in this population might focus on specific illness denial processes and personality traits.

Security awareness of single sign-on account in the academic community: the roles of demographics, privacy concerns, and Big-Five personality

Single sign-on (SSO) enables users to authenticate across multiple related but independent systems using a single username and password. While the number of higher education institutions adopting SSO continues to grow, little is known about the academic community's security awareness regarding SSO. This paper aims to examine the security awareness of SSO across various demographic groups within a single higher education institution based on their age, gender, and academic roles. Additionally, we investigate some psychological factors (i.e., privacy concerns and personality traits) that may influence users' level of SSO security awareness. Using survey data collected from 283 participants (faculty, staff, and students) and analyzed using a hierarchical linear regression model, we discovered a generational gap, but no gender gap, in security awareness of SSO. Additionally, our findings confirm that students have a significantly lower level of security awareness than faculty and staff. Finally, we discovered that privacy concerns have no effect on SSO security awareness on their own. Rather, they interact with the user's personality traits, most notably agreeableness and conscientiousness. The findings of this study lay the groundwork for future research and interventions aimed at increasing cybersecurity awareness among users of various demographic groups as well as closing any existing gaps between them.

Examining the Hierarchical Influences of the Big-Five Dimensions and Anxiety Sensitivity on Anxiety Symptoms in Children

Anxiety sensitivity (AS), namely the fear of anxiety symptoms, has been described as a precursor of sub-threshold anxiety levels. Sexton et al. (2003) posited that increased AS would arise from an elevated neuroticism and that both would act as vulnerability factors for panic disorder (PD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) symptoms. Accordingly, this study aimed to (1) evaluate the applicability of this model to a pediatric population and (2) examine the influences of the other Big-Five personality dimensions on the four lower-order dimensions of AS (cognitive, physical, control, and physical) and on social phobia (SP), separation anxiety disorder (SAD) and depression symptoms. 200 children (104 girls) aged between 8 and 12 years old (mean age = 132.52 months, SD = 14.5) completed the Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index (Silverman et al., 1991), the Big Five Questionnaire for Children (Barbaranelli et al., 2003), and the Revised’s Children Anxiety and Depression Scale (Chorpita et al., 2000). Regression analyses confirmed that AS and neuroticism together significantly predicted the presence of PD, OCD, and GAD symptoms but also SP, SAD, and depression symptoms. Moreover, neuroticism interacted with extraversion, conscientiousness and agreeableness to significantly predict SP, GAD, and depression. Surprisingly, the global AS score was only predicted by agreeableness, while AS dimensions also specifically related to openness. Finally, AS dimensions did not predict the presence of specific anxiety symptoms. To conclude, the predicting model of anxiety symptoms in children sets neuroticism and AS on the same level, with an unexpected influence of agreeableness on AS, raising the importance of other trait-like factors in the definition of such models. Moreover, AS should be considered as a unitary construct when predicting the presence of anxiety symptoms in children. Future interventions must consider these associations to help children detect and recognize the symptoms of their anxiety and help them to interpret them correctly.