Personality and self-perception of physical and emotional health among first-year university students

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the four personality traits: psychoticism (P), extraversion (E), neuroticism (N) and lie tendencies (L) measured by the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, depression symptoms measured by the Zung Depression Scale (ZDS) and self-perceived health-related well-being measured by SF-36 in a sample of 430 healthy first-year university students of both sexes. We also wanted to determine which personality variable best predicts depression symptoms (ZDS) and well-being (SF-36). The obtained results showed that students rated their health and health-related quality of life as good, although they scored lower than same aged adults from the general population. Women had significantly higher scores on ZDS, N and L than men, while men scored higher on P and six out of eight SF-36 scales. N, among all of the other included personality variables, best predicts depression symptoms on ZDS and self-perceived physical and emotional health on SF-36. We also found that gender was not a moderator in any of the personality traits in their influence on well-being, but that N in females only adds significantly to the expression of depression symptoms. We concluded that personality plays an important role in subjective health-related well-being together with objective life circumstances.