Personality and depressive symptoms: individual participant meta-analysis of 10 cohorts

Publication type

Journal Article

Authors

Publication date

July 15, 2015

Summary:

Background: Personality is suggested to be a major risk factor for depression but large-scale individual participant meta-analyses on this topic are lacking.
Method: Data from 10 prospective community cohort studies with 117,899 participants (mean age 49.0 years; 54.7% women) were pooled for individual participant meta-analysis to determine the association between personality traits of the five-factor model and risk of depressive symptoms.
Results: In cross-sectional analysis, low extraversion (pooled standardized regression coefficient (B) = –.08; 95% confidence interval = –0.11, –0.04), high neuroticism (B = .39; 0.32, 0.45), and low conscientiousness (B = –.09; –0.10, –0.06) were associated with depressive symptoms. Similar associations were observed in longitudinal analyses adjusted for baseline depressive symptoms (n = 56,735; mean follow-up of 5.0 years): low extraversion (B = –.03; –0.05, –0.01), high neuroticism (B = .12; 0.10, 0.13), and low conscientiousness (B = –.04; –0.06, –0.02) were associated with an increased risk of depressive symptoms at follow-up. In turn, depressive symptoms were associated with personality change in extraversion (B = –.07; 95% CI = –0.12, –0.02), neuroticism (B = .23; 0.09, 0.36), agreeableness (B = –.09; –0.15, –0.04), conscientiousness (B = –.14; –0.21, –0.07), and openness to experience (B = –.04; –0.08, 0.00).
Conclusions: Personality traits are prospectively associated with the development of depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms, in turn, are associated with changes in personality that may be temporary or persistent.

Published in

Depression and Anxiety

Volume and page numbers

Volume: 32 , p.461 -470

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/da.22376

ISSN

15206394

Subjects

#523297

News

Latest findings, new research

Publications search

Search all research by subject and author

Podcasts

Researchers discuss their findings and what they mean for society

Projects

Background and context, methods and data, aims and outputs

Events

Conferences, seminars and workshops

Survey methodology

Specialist research, practice and study

Taking the long view

ISER's annual report

Themes

Key research themes and areas of interest