A-29 The Mediating Effects of Personality on Sleep Quality and Executive Dysfunction

Objective

This study examined the relationship between personality traits, sleep quality, and executive dysfunction.

Method

Participants were 195 college students (65.6% female; 53.8% Caucasian, 33.3% African American, 4.1% Asian,; age range 17 – 46 years, Mage = 19.58 years, SD = 3.41; 73.3% no psychological diagnosis) who completed the following attention tasks: 120-item IPIP Neo (NEO), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and the Barkley Deficits in Executive Functioning Rating Scale-IV (BDEFS-IV).

Results

Mediation analyses were tested using 5000 bootstrapping resamples with bias-corrected 95% confidence estimates to investigate if personality traits mediated the effect of sleep quality on executive dysfunction. The total effect between PSQI and BDEFS-IV was significant, F(1,193) = 15.80, p < .001, r2 = .08, 95% CI = 1.79, 5.31). The model was significant when examining the relationship between the independent variable, mediators, and dependent variable, F(6,188) = 29.31, p < .000, r2 = .48. Three of the five mediators demonstrated significant indirect effects: neuroticism, (B = 1.07, t (188) = 5.39, p = .000, 95% CI = .68, 1.46), extraversion (B = .63, t (188) = 3.46, p = .000, 95% CI = .27, .99), and conscientiousness (B = -1.91, t (188) = -7.46, p = .000, 95% CI = -2.42, -1.41). The direct effect of PSQI and BDEFS-IV was not significant (B = .731, t (188) = .99, p = .32, 95% CI = -.72, 2.18) when controlling for all five mediators, confirming a full mediation.

Conclusions

Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Conscientiousness significantly mediated the relationship between self-reported sleep quality and executive dysfunction.

A-64 The Relationship between Big-5 Personality Factors and Cognitive Health

Objective

The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship between factors of personality and cognitive health.

Methods

Two hundred and two participants (M age = 19.51, SD = 3.33; M education = 12.40, SD = .75; 72.3% Female, 55.3% White, 36.0% African American, 4.6% Asian, 4.1% Other) completed the cognitive health questionnaire (CHQ) and a 120-item International Personality Item Pool Representation of the NEO-PI-R (IPIP-NEO) as a part of a larger battery in an institutional setting. A CHQ total score was calculated based on items of four positive factors of cognitive health including social/intellectual activities, nutrition, exercise, and eating habits.

Results

A multiple linear regression using backwards elimination was calculated to predict scores on the Cognitive Health Questionnaire utilizing the five personality factors of the IPIP-NEO. The overall five-factor regression model yielded a significant regression equation (F(5,196) = 7.76, p < .001), with an R2 of .165. The final three-factor regression model consisting of extraversion, openness, and consciousness yielded significant results (F(3,198) = 12.70, p < .001), with an R2 of .161.

Conclusions

This exploratory study investigated the relationship between factors of personality and cognitive health. Although a multiple regression model involving all five factors of personality were significantly predictive of cognitive health, the results of this study indicate that greater variance of cognitive health is predicted by extraversion, openness and conscientiousness than neuroticism and agreeableness. Further research should investigate each factor of cognitive health and how these components are predicted by features of personality.